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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25812844">Make Like Swallows</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cathybites/pseuds/poorlyformed'>poorlyformed (cathybites)</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMyfanwy/pseuds/SilverMyfanwy'>SilverMyfanwy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain Marvel (2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe- Mortal, Cops AU, Crime, Domestic Fluff, F/F, First Dates, Fluff, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Lesbian Carol Danvers, Lesbian Maria Rambeau, Police AU, single parent</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 11:56:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,133</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25812844</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cathybites/pseuds/poorlyformed, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMyfanwy/pseuds/SilverMyfanwy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Carol had expected a new life with her job as a police officer in a new town. She hadn't also expected new love in the form of Maria, the woman who ran the local garage.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Marvel Femslash Big Bang 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>First of all, thank you to cathybites for the wonderful art and thank you to jadewestwriter for all your editing! Thank you to the mods as well.</p><p>Secondly, this is a police au. As I was writing the last chapter or so of this fic, George Floyd was murdered and protests broke out all over the world.</p><p>There are no good cops.</p><p>This fic is set in the early 1990s, somewhere in America. I was not alive in the early 1990s, nor have I ever been alive in America, so the historical accuracy is probably largely non-existent. Of the four cops, three are lesbians and one is a black man. Their minority status does not make them good cops.</p><p>Please proceed with as much caution as you feel you need to. There are no warnings for the first chapter.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p>Carol was praying she wasn’t lost.</p><p>Carol didn’t pray; she made a point of it. Gods and religions, words given to statues and the sky, incantations to altars and arches- it wasn’t for her. Hadn’t been since she was let down by a candle to save her hamster aged 7. Nothing she’d seen since had changed her mind. So Carol didn’t pray, because maybe some people had words big and brave enough that their words could help world peace and dodgy hips, but Carol preferred to be the bigness and braveness herself.</p><p>But here she was on a road between desert and cornfield praying that she wasn't going to have to explain to her new landlady that she was late to pick up the keys for her house because the town’s newest cop couldn’t read a map.</p><p>Desperate times called for deitous measures.</p><p>“Signpost, signpost, signpost, come on, signpost, please.” Carol muttered under her breath, fingertips digging into the peeling rubber grips on her steering wheel. She didn’t think she was going to see one; there hadn’t been anything other than the yellow sun and yellow plants and yellow ground and yellow dust and yellow hair in her face for miles now. There hadn’t been any cars for at least half an hour, either, according to the ticking yellow numbers on the dash- why was there so much yellow?</p><p>With a resigned sigh, Carol pulled her truck over and wrestled the map off the passenger seat. The sheet of paper flapped in various inconvenient directions as she tried to fold it to a manageable size. Somehow she scowled it into place and found the last turning she thought she’d taken.</p><p>The town, the new town with the new house and the new boss and the new people, was about a mile away. That is, if the map was correct and Carol had turned in the right place and not ended up a million miles from anywhere. Being actually a million miles from anywhere rather than being hypotheticallya million miles from anywhere would have been better. Then Carol would have been in space with lumps of floating rock and orbs of burning fire. Maybe there would have been a couple of friendly aliens swimming around too.<br/>
Sitting resolutely on Planet Earth, there were a couple of wicked looking crows giving Carol the stink eye. She gave it right back then picked the strands of hair stuck to her forehead with sweat off and threw the map onto the backseat so she didn’t have to try and fold it up. Carol adjusted her t-shirt to stop the seatbelt from carving a harsh red welt into her stomach and drove on. A piece of grit bounced up off the road and through the window- that stubbornly refused to close- grazing across her chin. Carol frowned and drove slower.</p><p>In the distance, the air was shimmering with heat and the ground seemed to become even more yellow. The corn began to fade away.</p><p>A metal sign appeared by the side of the road, slightly tilted and propped up with three pieces of wood as well as the pole it was attached to. Most of the letters had been worn away by hours of bleaching sunlight but there was enough left that Carol knew she’d made the right turning and she would be able to meet her landlady on time. She smiled,and if it was exceptionally smug and she felt extremely proud of herself, only the crows knew.</p><p>A minute after passing the sign, the truck ground to a halt and smoke began to trickle out of the hood. Carol’s nostrils flared; she squeezed the steering wheel and got out of the truck with a slam of the door and stood, hands on hips, staring at her truck. Mostly, she wanted to kick a tire but she was slightly concerned that would cause the whole truck to go up in flames and she really didn’t want that to happen.</p><p>Carol opened up the hood of the truck and looked down at the insides, where the engine was now smoking slightly less despite wires that looked concerningly worn and twisted. A choking noise came from the engine and Carol backed away, coughing, as the smoke turned black. “You just had to die a mile before we got there, didn’t you?”</p><p>Carol risked going back into the truck to take the keys out of the ignition and the smoke spluttered to a halt, but Carol had spent enough time around the insides of planes and cars to know when one wasn’t going anywhere.</p><p>Carol sighed, walked to the back of the car and began to push.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>The first car that went past slowed down and a man with curly black hair stuck his head out of the window. “You alright there?”<br/>Carol smiled wearily. “I’m good, thanks. Do you know how far I am from town?”<p>“About half a mile.” the man said. “Are you sure you don’t want a hand?”</p><p>“I’m sure. Is there a garage in town I can take my truck to?” Carol asked, pausing and leaning her arm on the back of the trailer.</p><p>The man nodded. “Yeah. After you get into town, leave your truck by the side of the road, turn right and it’s on the far side end of the main street on the right. If you tell Maria what’s happened, she’ll tow your truck in for you. Good luck!”</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>The man drove on. With a glance over her shoulder, Carol noticed the bags of veterinary equipment in the back of her truck. She decided that the man was unlikely to have lied to her and put her hands back on the edge of the trailer gate, ducked her head, set her shoulders and braced her feet on the tarmac as she began to push the truck again.</p><p>Two hours later, Carol was exhausted and dripping in sweat. She reached the town and left the truck by the sidewalk as soon as it began. The sun had passed the boiling point and the heat had settled, though it was no longer continuously rising. On a piece of paper in her bag, Carol had scribbled down the address of her new house and according to her reckoning, she might still be able to get there on time to meet the landlady but only if she left the truck for the time being.</p><p>The sidewalk was warm and worn beneath her feet, the people who caught sight of her through windows were curious and possibly concerned. Carol paid them no attention and prayed that the landlady wouldn’t mind that she was dripping in sweat. </p><p>Fortunately, because she felt she may have already disturbed enough locals for the day already and making a bad first impression as a police officer was a really bad idea, the street Carol was looking for branched off the street she’d left the truck on and she didn’t have to ask for directions.</p><p>The street looked far newer than the rest of the town; slim, tall brick instead of long, low white wood panels that set off a whole host of suburb alarms in Carol’s head. Her house was in the middle of the street and Carol double-checked the number written on the paper, then took in the teenage boy with brown hair sitting on the front step reading a physics textbook.</p><p>“Hello.” Carol said, smiling and tipping her head to one side slightly.</p><p>The boy looked up and his eyes went wide. “Are you Ms Danvers?”</p><p>“That’s me. I’m pretty sure you’re not Ms Parker.”</p><p>THe boy scrambled to his feet and laughed. “No, that’s my aunt. She’s inside; I’ll just get her for you. I’m Peter, by the way. Nice to meet you.” Peter took a step forward and shook Carol’s hand with a surprisingly strong grip, one she returned with glee.</p><p>“You’re strong.” Peter said, smiling.</p><p>Carol curled a corner of her mouth into a smile and Peter went into the house. She waited on the pavement for a few moments, arms swinging at her sides and rocking back and forth on her feet, and then the door opened again and Peter came out, followed by a woman with long brown hair and glasses. She looked far kinder than Carol had expected and she breathed a sigh of internal relief.</p><p>“Hi!” May came bounding over to her with the same enthusiasm Peter had had. She held her hand out. “I’m May Parker, it’s lovely to meet you!”</p><p>“I’m Carol.”</p><p>“D’you need a hand getting your stuff in?” May looked around Carol and confusion came over her face at the lack of bags or boxes. “Ah. You…”</p><p>“Everything’s in my car. It broke down on the way here so I pushed it to the edge of town so I could walk here and meet you on time. Once we’re done here I’m gonna go to the garage and see if someone can town it in for me.”<br/>
May looked horrified. “Did you have to push it far?”</p><p>“Uh, from the welcome sign to the start of the sidewalk.” Carol said.</p><p>“What does it look like? Peter can go to the garage and have Maria pick it up so you don’t have to walk as far.”</p><p>“It’s not trouble. I’m ex-Air Force; walking is easy and it’ll help me get to know the town.” Carol said.</p><p>“Oh wow! Ex-Air Force! We had a tenant who said he was a soldier but we didn’t believe him and then he got extradited to Japan for smuggling or something. I tried not to follow it. Come in and we’ll finish sorting out the paperwork.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>May Parker and her nephew were two of the kindest, most energetic people Carol had ever met. After finishing the last pieces of paperwork and giving her the key, May had also given Carol a map of the town, a list of local shops and businesses that she would probably find useful and pointed out the milk, cheese, bread and jam in the fridge. “You’re very welcome to come and have dinner with us tonight. We live on the other side of town and we’d love to get to know you better. Then you don’t have to worry about trying to sort out food and stuff tonight as well as your car. When do you start work?”<p>“I’m supposed to go in tomorrow at midday.” Carol said.</p><p>“That gives you plenty of time to get sorted. Now, where were we?”</p><p>With the offer of dinner accepted and a whispered note from Peter that May’s cooking wasn’t always edible but their neighbour’s was and that May had a tendency to look after her tenants, Carol left the house and went looking for the garage.</p><p>It was at the end of the street, sandwiched between a field of wheat and a nail salon. There was a large driveway with all manner of cars outside of the open shop front, where Carol could see someone working underneath a car and a small girl with enormous hair sitting behind a deal. The garage was dimly lit and full of car parts; as Carol got closer she could see the Converse of the girl swinging back and forth beneath the desk as she drew something. She looked up and smiled at Carol. “Mom! You’ve got a new customer!”</p><p>A woman with short black hair wearing a pair of green overalls slid out from underneath the car and turned to face Carol, wiping her hands on her thighs. “Hi!”</p><p>Carol was gone. In that one instant, Carol was gone. The woman, Maria, presumably, had cheekbones for miles and eyes that looked like the trunks of pine trees after rainfall. Her smile spread across her face like solid sunshine and muscles pressed up against her sleeves as she held a hand out to Carol. “I’m Maria. Can I help you?”<br/>
“I’m Carol. Uh, my truck is on the other side of town; it broke down as I was driving here, there was smoke coming out of the hood and I think there are some tangled wires. And one of the windows doesn’t shut. I was told that you would be able to tow it here for me and fix it up?” Carol asked hopefully.</p><p>“Of course! I’ll get my truck ready and we’ll drive over to get it.” Maria walked over to the desk, leant around the girl and opened a drawer. She took a thick bunch of keys out. “Monica, you coming for a ride?”</p><p>The girl nodded and stood up.</p><p>“How old’s your car?” Maria asked as they walked out of the garage and she pressed a button to slide down the shutter across the entrance and lock the shop up.</p><p>“Too old.” Carol said. “I don’t know. I’m the sixth owner. And I think it has a grudge against me because it gave up just after the welcome sign and I had to push it for a mile and was almost late to meet my new landlady.”</p><p>Monica giggled. “It has a grudge against you?”</p><p>Carol smiled at her. “Yep.”</p><p>“We’ve had haunted cars and cursed cars but never a car with a grudge before.” Maria said. She walked over to a tow truck and unlocked it. “Monica, go in the middle.”</p><p>“The cars weren’t actually cursed or haunted.” Monica told Carol as they got in the truck. “The owners were just a bit weird.”</p><p>“I’m glad to hear that you didn’t have to deal with ghosts or witches.” Carol said. “And I hope my truck doesn’t really have a grudge either.”</p><p>“Are you new to town?” Maria asked.</p><p>“Yeah. Moved from upstate.”</p><p>“What do you work as?” Monica asked.</p><p>“From midday tomorrow, I’ll be your town’s newest cop.” Carol said.</p><p>“The most criminal thing that ever happens around here is cattle rustling.” Maria said. “But the crime rate in town’s fairly low.”</p><p>“Hopefully I won’t be too busy straight off the bat, then.” Carol said.</p><p>Maria and Monica laughed. Carol looked at them in confusion.</p><p>“Don’t tell her.” Maria told Monica. “Wait for her to meet Fury. Let her stay in blissful ignorance for now.”<br/>
“Okay.” Monica giggled.</p><p>“Is Fury really furious?” Carol asked Monica, who giggled some more.</p><p>“Don't say that to him because he might chop your head off.” she said. “Who’s your landlady?” she asked before Carol could press any further.</p><p>“May Parker.”</p><p>“She’s lovely. Is your truck up there?” Maria asked.</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“Her nephew works for me during school holidays?” Maria said as Carol’s truck came into view. “I’m guessing that’s it?”</p><p>“Yep.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>They took the truck back to the garage and Maria promised to ring Carol when it was fixed. Carol took her things out and walked over to her flat, dumping everything in a pile on the kitchen floor before downing a glass of freezing cold water.<p>There was a knock at the door and Carol had a brief moment of panic as she wondered if she’d managed to annoy the neighbours enough so quickly that they already felt it was necessary to come round.</p><p>“Peter!”</p><p>Peter smiled sheepishly. “May sent me to come and get you so you wouldn’t get lost on your way across town.”</p><p>“Let me grab my keys and we can go.”</p><p>The sun was just beginning to drop as they walked across the cooling sidewalk and lengthening shadows. Only two cars drove past, kicking up clouds of dust. It wasn’t quiet; dogs barked, children played in backyards, adults laughed. Carol got plenty of strange looks.</p><p>“You’ll get a lot of that for the first couple of weeks.” Peter said, noticing. “Then they’ll get used to you and you’ll just be a part of the town. Did you manage to sort your truck out?”</p><p>Carol nodded. “Maria said you work for her in school holidays. Are you interested in cars?”</p><p>Peter blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Not just cars. I love engineering, mechanics, building stuff, making stuff, science, maths. I get to do all of that there, so.”</p><p>“You sound smarter than I am.” </p><p>“I’m sure that’s not true, Ms Danvers.”</p><p>“Engineering, maths and physics I can do.” Carol said. “I was awful at chemistry and biology.”</p><p>“I love all the sciences.” Peter said. “Do you work in that kind of area?”</p><p>“I used to, when I was in the Air Force. Now I’m just a lowly cop.and I have to know stuff about the law.”</p><p>“You’re the new cop?” Peter asked excitedly. “Oh, man. MJ’s gonna be so excited we have another lady cop. Uh, a cop who’s a woman, sorry. I mean, we’ve got one already, Officer Hill, she’s kinda scary. And Sergeant Fury, who is really scary. And he’s a man. We used to have another cop but he got arrested for planning a terrorist attack and on suspicion of being a Nazi.”</p><p>Carol’s eyebrows shot up. “Woah. Maria said that the worst thing that happens here is cattle rustling and that there’s a low crime rate but with your smuggler tenant and that bad cop it sounds like there’s maybe worse stuff too.”</p><p>Peter thought for a moment. “There’s not much low level crime. When bad stuff happens, it’s really bad stuff. Nothing in the middle.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>Dinner provided a series of very useful insights into life in town that made Carol feel slightly more prepared before going to work the next day. It also made her slightly more wary of her new boss, as Maria and Peter echoed what Maria and Monica had said.<p>The police station was in a one story building on the corner of an intersection. Two squad cars were parked outside and Carol walked in, praying that it would be devoid of the public.</p><p>Inside, a man with an eyepatch was sitting at a desk while a woman with hair in a short brown ponytail sat on the desk. The woman got up and met her at the door.</p><p>“You must be Carol Danvers.” she said. “I’m Maria Hill.”</p><p>“Nice to meet you.”</p><p>The man with the eyepatch stood up and walked over. “And I’m Fury. Welcome to town.”<br/>
“Thank you sir.”</p><p>“Come and sit down and we’ll explain how things work around here.” Fury pointed to an empty desk. “That’s yours. I don’t care what you do with it as long as you don’t keep doughnuts in the drawers for months at a time. Brings mice in like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.”</p><p>“Does other food not attract mice?” Carol asked, slightly bewildered.</p><p>“It does, but the issue it that Goose-”</p><p>“Goose is the station cat.” Maria interjected. “It’s not an actual goose.”</p><p>Fury glared at her half-heartedly. “As I was saying, Goose normally gets rid of any mice but she’s scared of doughnuts so lets the mice do whatever they want”</p><p>“You have a cat called Goose who’s scared of doughnuts.” Carol said slowly. “Right.”</p><p>“Where is she?” Fury said, looking around the station. “Goose! Goosie!”</p><p>A ginger cat with a dark blue collar walked out from behind a filing cabinet and straight up to Carol. She began purring and rubbing herself on Carol's legs and both Fury and Maria breathed a sigh of relief.</p><p>“Hello.” Carol crouched down to goose’s level. “Can I stroke her?”</p><p>“Go for it.” Fury said. “Congratulations! You’ve passed the first test.”</p><p>“What test?”</p><p>“If Goose likes you, it means you’re a good person.” Maria said. “She hated your predecessor.”</p><p>“What else does she need to know?” Fury asked Maria.</p><p>“Uh, that’s reception, that’s the holding cell, permits in there, current case files there, past case files there, criminal records there. Door, fridge, kettle, sink, bathroom. Spare keys are in a secret compartment in the floor under the pot with the dead cactus in.” Maria listed. “If things are good, patrol is one cop, if things are bad, it’s two. You scared of cows?”</p><p>“Nope.”</p><p>“Good. It’s best not to make any sort of allegiance with any of the churches in town so if you want to go to church, find one someplace else. The old ladies don’t like telling us stuff if they think we go to a different church than them.” Fury said. “Other than that, standard small town America rules apply. We’re working on the racism, sexism, homophobia and attitudes towards Russia.”</p><p>“At this point racism is mostly towards Irish people.” Maria said as an afterthought. “And the circus. Are you Irish?”</p><p>“Nope.”</p><p>“Should be alright then. Let’s go and find you a badge and a set of car keys. I went out earlier, we’ll go out for a patrol later and I can show you dodgy spots. We get two to three call outs a week, normally for theft or loose animals. People come in to report crime or to ask for help. Occasionally someone goes missing but it’s getting rarer.” Maria led Carol over to a cupboard full of key rings.</p><p>“Why are there so many keys?” Carol asked.</p><p>“Some of the old ladies-”</p><p>“Most of the old ladies.” Fury interjected.</p><p>“Most of the old ladies like to give us their spare keys so that if something happens we don’t have to break their doors down.” Maria continued.</p><p>“Ah.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>Carol went home to find the phone ringing. She answered and then found herself heading out of the door again after chucking her work shirt and jacket off to replace with a shirt.<p>Monica waved at her from the front of the garage as Carol made her way up the sidewalk. She looked back over her shoulder. “Mom! Carol, the new cop’s here to get her truck!” she turned back to Carol. “How was your first day of work?”</p><p>“Well, Fury isn’t furious.” Carol said, smiling. “And I met the cat, Goose. Have you met Goose?”</p><p>Monica nodded and her face lit up. “Goose comes round here sometimes and we give her sardines.”</p><p>Maria walked out to meet Carol and smiled. “How are you?”</p><p>“Ready to have my truck back. Was there much wrong with it?”</p><p>Maria gestured for Carol to come inside. Her truck was over in a  corner, only one of two in the garage. “Couple of bits with the engines, sorted the wires out for you. And the window works again. Should last you a while longer yet.”<br/>
“Thank you so much for fixing it so quickly. How much?”</p><p>Maria listed the price and Carol smiled. “That’s not awful. Thank you.”</p><p>“I’m glad. How was work? Monica kept on mentioning you this morning, wondering how you’d get on.”</p><p>“It went really well. Sergeant Fury and Officer Hill seem like they’re going to be good people to work with.”</p><p>“She met Goose!” Monica called out.</p><p>“And I also met some of the old ladies.” Carol put her hands in her pockets, blushed and looked at the floor. “One of them came with her friend to complain about a truck that had been randomly parked by the sidewalk yesterday and I told her that it had been sorted out; she demanded to know how I knew and I had to explain that it was my truck and it had broken down so I’d taken it to the garage. That was awkward.”</p><p>“Well, now you can have your truck back and I can almost guarantee that some other old lady living on your street will go to the station and complain about a new truck suddenly having appeared.” Maria smiled and pulled Carol’s keys out of her pocket and handed them over. “D’you wanna drive it out and then pay, so if it doesn’t start again I can just carry on from where I left off?”</p><p>Carol nodded and drove the truck out of the garage without an issue. “Do you do services or just repair work?” Carol asked hopefully as she paid.</p><p>“I’ll do anything that involves car parts.” Maria said, smiling.</p><p>“She even used to race cars.” Monica said.</p><p>Carol hoped that the awe with which she was now looking at Maria wasn't too obvious. “Wow. That’s so cool.”</p><p>“Those days are long behind me.” Maria handed Carol her receipt. “Drive safely.”</p><p>“I will. I think I’ll be back for a service pretty soon.” Carol began to walk out. “You can tell me more about your car racing. Thank you and have a good night!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Carol had guessed that she was going to find her way around the town and learn the personalities of the main characters fairly quickly. She had not expected it to be so fast that it took place on her sixth day of work because she had to knock nearly every residential door in town to try and find witnesses to some graffiti that had appeared the day before. The second and third days at work had been spent learning how to use the filing system and trying to resurrect the dead cactus while the fourth and fifth days had consisted of trekking through a field looking for a box of jewelry that had supposedly been stolen by a cleaner but turned out to simply have been moved to a different drawer to normal.</p>
<p>The door knocking began at 9 am. Fury dropped Carol off at one end of town, then drove himself to the other. “If you’ve met an old lady and she offers you tea or coffee, you can turn it down because of the weather, but under absolutely no circumstances can you turn down baked goods. Make it very clear to old men that you’re not allowed alcohol while on duty and that you are only there about the graffitti and that if they want to complain about noise, they have to follow the proper channels. Assure parents you aren’t there about their children, assure children they’re not in trouble. I’m just listing basic textbook stuff now. Out you get. Radio me if you get any decent information.”</p>
<p>Fury stopped the car and Carol headed up the first pathway.</p>
<p>Door three gave the first answer.</p>
<p>An old woman with pink hair and enormous silver earrings opened the door and beamed. “You’re the new police officer! Oh, Celia and Diana will be so jealous that I met you first. Come in, come in, what is it you’re here for?”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>Harley Keener was next, opening the door the slightest amount and trying to stop a Rottweiler from hurtling out. “Have you come about my dad?” he asked wearily when he saw Carol’s uniform. “Coz my mom did say that she’d ring the station if he came back and he can’t be dead because MJ said that the police has to send two cops round if someone died.”<p>“I’m here to ask about some graffiti that got found outside the diner yesterday. Did you see or hear anything?” Carol took a step forward.</p>
<p>Harley kicked the door open wider and sat on the floor with his arms wrapped around the dog’s neck. “Nope. Sorry.”</p>
<p>“Where’s your mom?” Carol asked, looking down the hallway for signs of anyone else.</p>
<p>“She’s having a nap.” Harley said. “She’s got a cold. My sister won’t have seen anything; she was at school yesterday.”</p>
<p>A series of sneezes from the rest of the house backed up Harley’s words. “Why aren’t you at school?”</p>
<p>“The teachers are having a training day.” Harley said. “What’s your name?”</p>
<p>“Officer Danvers. What’s yours?”</p>
<p>“Mr Keener.” Harley stuck a hand out to Carol with an impish grin. “But you can call me Harley.”</p>
<p>“And what’s your dog’s name?” Carol asked.</p>
<p>“Monster. She’s not really a monster. You can stroke her if you want.”</p>
<p>“Hello Monster.” Carol stroked the dog. “I hope your mom gets better soon, I need to go and knock on some more doors. Have a good day!”</p>
<p>Harley waved. “Bye Officer Danvers.”</p>
<p>The door shut and Carol moved on to the next house. A familiar face peeked out at her through the living room window and waved. There was a series of dulled shouts and then the door swung open.</p>
<p>“Officer Danvers.” Maria smiled at Carol. “Or are you here as Carol?”</p>
<p>“Officer Danvers, I’m afraid.”</p>
<p>“Am I in trouble?” Monica called cheerfully from another room and then came sliding into the hallway, smiling from ear to ear.</p>
<p>“No, but someone else is. We’re asking around to see if anyone knows about some graffiti that appeared on the side of the diner yesterday. Did you see or hear anything suspicious that could be connected to it?”</p>
<p>Maria shook her head. “I was at the garage all day yesterday and Moncia was at school. We walked around the edge of town to pick up one of the other kids and take her to school. Sorry we can’t help. Was the graffitti bad?”</p>
<p>Carol shook her head. “No. It’s been painted over now, I believe. It was an address or something; we have no idea why it got put there. Thank you for your time; if you do see or hear anything, come down to the police station and let us know. Are you off school?”</p>
<p>Monica nodded, beaming. “We’re building a rabbit hutch so I can have a rabbit for my birthday.”</p>
<p>“Have fun. I’ll see you around, quite possibly at the garage at some point this week.”<br/>“Good luck finding the graffiti artist!” Monica called and Carol headed down the path.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>True to her prediction, Carol was at the garage four days later with a truck very much on its last legs. It spluttered and coughed the whole three minute drive from her street to the garage where Maria was waiting on the sidewalk, hand up and shielding her eyes from the sun.<p>“That sounds horrific.” Maria said, then started coughing as a cloud of dark grey fumes came out from underneath the truck.</p>
<p>Carol joined Maria on the sidewalk and in the coughing. “I think it’s dead.”</p>
<p>“It’s certainly dying. How on earth has it got this bad in less than two weeks?” Maria crouched down and peered at the belly of the truck, waving the fumes out of her face.</p>
<p>“I have no idea.” Carol sat down on the tarmac and crossed her legs. “Can you fix it?”</p>
<p>“Hang on.” Maria went into the garage and reemerged with a slider. She rolled under the truck once the smoke had cleared and audibly winced.</p>
<p>“What is it?”</p>
<p>“Can you go into the garage and get me a pair of pliers? There should be some on the rack of tools behind the desk?” Maria said.</p>
<p>Carol duly went and fetched a pair of pliers with worn yellow rubber handles and gave them to Maria, who emerged from under the car after a few moments of elbow flapping and a bit of grunting. “I think this might have been what was causing the problem.”</p>
<p>A huge ball of tangled, matted and blackened grasses sat on Maria’s lap.</p>
<p>“Yuk.”</p>
<p>“Yep.” Maria placed it on the ground next to her with a grimace. “You've been driving past fields lately?”</p>
<p>Carol nodded. “You think that’s what’s been causing the problems?”</p>
<p>“Probably. Give it a try.”</p>
<p>The truck started up without splutter or smoke.</p>
<p>“That was easy.” Maria said. “I’d been expecting worse.”</p>
<p>“Me too.”</p>
<p>“Want me to check over everything else while you’re here? I’d scheduled in about an hour for this.”</p>
<p>“Could you?”</p>
<p>“Course.”</p>
<p>Carol would have been lying if she’d said that she hadn’t taken the opportunity to watch Maria at work, dark overalls, worn boots, sleeves rolled up over arms that could work all day. And her face looked like-</p>
<p>“Did you manage to find the graffiti artist you were looking for?” Maria jolted Carol out of her thoughts.</p>
<p>“No. No one had seen or heard anything either, so either people are keeping quiet or someone has managed to get away with it.”</p>
<p>“Has no more shown up?”</p>
<p>“Not that I’ve been told about.”</p>
<p>“Your oil and water are fine.” Maria said, still working. “And how are you finding town? Beginning to settle in?”</p>
<p>“I think so. People haven’t been horrible. The kids are nice. People have been really nice, actually.”</p>
<p>“Is it similar to the last place you lived?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. This place is a bit bigger; I commuted before. And this place seems to be a lot less church controlled.”</p>
<p>“Was it one of those places where everyone was religious?” Maria closed the hood. “Everything in there seems fine. I’ll check the tires and exhaust now.”</p>
<p>“Okay. Everyone was religious, apart from me, which could make things tricky and awkward.” Carol gave a wry smile. “Are you religious?”</p>
<p>“Sometimes. People aren’t as picky about church and two parents with a housewife here as they are in some places. It’s easy to stay out of it.” Maria grinned. “And not going to a church here means that I have open access for business. The rivalries are only about once a year; each of the churches have a fundraising day in the summer but they hold them all on the same day and secretly there’s an unspoken competition to see who raises the most money. Afterwards people are bitter for about a week and only go to businesses run by people from their church because they blame the others for donating too much stuff to the other fairs and being the reason that their church lost.”</p>
<p>“I think I’ll avoid that.” Carol decided. Maria chuckled. “And you can have my word that my business will not be going elsewhere.”</p>
<p>Maria smiled. “Thank you. Everything looks good as far as I can see. Might wanna keep an eye on the front left tire; I think it might be getting a little low.”</p>
<p>“Thanks.” Carol got to her feet. “Hey, if, well, when, I have to come back again, will you tell me about car racing?”</p>
<p>“Of course.” Maria smiled.</p>
<p>“How much do I owe you?”</p>
<p>“I believe the pleasure of your company paid for everything already.” Maria said.</p>
<p>Carol hoped that she wasn’t blushing as much as she thought she was. “I can’t let you do that. That was, like, twenty minutes of your time and you had to deal with my horrible truck. Please let me pay you. I would feel bad if I didn’t.”</p>
<p>“Not gonna turn down money if you say please.” Maria said. “$5?”</p>
<p>“$10.”</p>
<p>“Done.” </p>
<p>Carol handed over the money. “See you soon.”</p>
<p>“Is that a promise?”</p>
<p>Carol grinned and got into her truck. “It is.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>“Carol Danvers you are my favourite colleague.” Fury took the cup of coffee from her with outstretched arms and ignored the glare that Maria shot him that quickly vanished as she too drank her coffee.<p>“Anything fun come in overnight?” Maria asked Carol as she checked the fax machine.</p>
<p>“Nope.” Carol sat down and stared at the pile of paperwork on her desk. “What’s this for?”</p>
<p>“Have a look.” Fury said dryly. “Maria and I are going on patrol later; if you feel up to manning the fort by yourself.”</p>
<p>Carol nodded. “There’s nothing the old ladies can throw at me that I can’t handle.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>Carol had been completely correct. Although tricky and testing and tiring, she had managed to deal with the pair of old ladies who had come in to complain about the noise of the children’s bikes of a family living on their road. With some effort, she had managed to explain to them that there were absolutely no laws about riding bikes in the privacy of your own garden at 5 pm and that as the noise wasn’t actually as loud as they were making it out to be- “Oh, well, I supposed it’s the same volume as the dog barking at 23 and it’s only for an hour or so but it’s every single day and it just gets so frustrating when I can't hear anything they’re saying on the radio-” “Have you tried turning up the volume on the radio?”- there was no reason for an officer to go and tell them to be quiet.<p>It was the young woman that Carol found challenging.</p>
<p>About an hour after Fury and Maria had left, a woman with long red hair wearing large sunglasses walked in. She stopped short when she saw Carol. “You must be Officer Danvers.”</p>
<p>“That’s me.”</p>
<p>The woman took her sunglasses off and held a hand out to Carol. “I’m Natasha Romanoff. Private detective, former CIA agent, former soldier, former police office. I’m the person that gets called in when someone here goes on holiday or there’s a riot.”</p>
<p>“A riot?” Carol’s eyebrows shot up. “There are riots here?”</p>
<p>“Not here. The city. They send the officers from here there, and I get sent from the city to here. I’ve got some papers I’m here to collect. Can I come through?” she was already making her way towards the gate.</p>
<p>“Nope.” Carol stood up with a dry smile and blocked Natasha’s path. “I’m not letting you go anywhere here or giving you any information unless I’m told to by Sergeant Fury.”</p>
<p>“I’ll wait here then.” Natasha gave a dry smile back and sat on the floor next to one of the few surviving plants.</p>
<p>Carol sat back down and they stared at each other for a few moments.</p>
<p>Then Fury and Maria walked back in.</p>
<p>When Fury caught sight of Natasha, he stood in the doorway with his hands on his hips and frowned down at her. She smirked.</p>
<p>“What have you been trying on my new employee?” he drawled.</p>
<p>Natasha stood up. “Nothing that worked.”</p>
<p>“You passed the next test!” Maria said cheerily. She walked past Fury and patted Carol on the shoulder. “What did you ask for this time? Files?”</p>
<p>“Papers.”</p>
<p>“Do you actually need any?”</p>
<p>“Nope. See you later.” Natasha walked out of the door.</p>
<p>“Did you seriously only come here to see what Carol’s like?” Fury asked her incredulously.</p>
<p>“Thought I’d drop in after seeing a client.” she left.</p>
<p>“She told me that she’s a PI who’s been in the CIA and the army and the police and that she’s basically the back up cop for here. There were some papers that she wanted.” Carol said.</p>
<p>Maria sighed and sat down at her desk. “That’s Natasha. She is a PI, she used to be in the CIA, she was an undercover cop and she was in special ops. Half Russian. Most terrifying woman I’ve ever met. She’s not normally like that, I promise. She’s probably just checking that you have a basic degree of competence and was trying to rattle you.”</p>
<p>“Is she actually the back up cop for here?”</p>
<p>Maria nodded.</p>
<p>“She mentioned something about riots.” Carol said cautiously. Much to her relief, Fury burst into a fit of raucous laughter.</p>
<p>“There’s never been a riot here.” he said. “Don’t worry yourself. A riot! Of all the things. A riot. She told the last one that she got brought in for translating for the aliens when they landed in the cornfields.”</p>
<p>“And he believed her.” Maria said darkly.</p>
<p>“I now understand why you like me so much, if my predecessor was that bad.”</p>
<p>“That wasn’t even your predecessor.” Maria said. “That was the cleaner.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>Two weeks later Carol’s tyre was completely flat and there was a mass of scratched paintwork on the doors from where she had accidentally driven through a patch of gravel while trying out a new route to a hardware store in the next town over. She had noticed it with a frustrated groan while on her way to work and found herself jogging to the station rather than driving through the dark. It was late afternoon when she came home and though she was really rather tired, Carol did not fancy having to walk to work again.<p>She pushed the truck to the garage, where, fortunately, Maria and Monica had it open. “I would have called ahead but I didn’t know what your number was.” she called out apologetically and stopped pushing for a moment, leaning against the side of the truck and panting.</p>
<p>Maria came down to the roa to see the truck for herself. “Did the tire go?”</p>
<p>Carol nodded.</p>
<p>“And you’ve pushed your truck all the way here?” Maria asked incredulously, looking horrified.</p>
<p>Carol nodded again. “There are some scratches as well.”</p>
<p>“I’ll tow it up into the shop.” Maria said. “I shouldn’t have to do any more pushing today. You want coffee or water or something?”</p>
<p>Carol grinned. “Cold water would be brilliant.”</p>
<p>“Monica! Get Carol some water!” Maria yelled up the slope.</p>
<p>“Do you want ice cubes?” Monica yelled from the doorway. “And come and pick what colour straw you want!”</p>
<p>Carol walked up to the shop and followed Monica’s gesture to go in. “Come with me!”</p>
<p>Behind the desk was a small door leading further into the building. Monica opened the door and Carol saw a staircase and a small kitchen. Monica was sitting on the floor in front of an open freezer. “You can have circular ice cubes or star shaped ones. Which would you like?”</p>
<p>“Stars.”</p>
<p>Monica tipped three star shaped ice cubes into a glass and then filled it up at the tap. “Here you go.”</p>
<p>“Thanks.” Carol downed it in one go, ice cubes and all, to Monica’s astonishment.</p>
<p>“Haven’t you got your brain frozen?”</p>
<p>Carol started to shake her head and then froze as the brain freeze set in. She winced and clutched at the sides of her face. “I have now.”</p>
<p>Monica giggled and ran to the garage entrance. “Mom, I accidentally gave Carol brain freeze!”</p>
<p>“Tell her when she’s thawed she can come and drive her truck in!” Maria hollered back.</p>
<p>Carol walked out of the garage, consciousness focused solely on her ice cube of a head and her pounding skull.</p>
<p>“You feeling any better?” Maria asked, getting into her truck. She’d already attached a tow rope to Carol’s truck.</p>
<p>“I’m hoping the sun will help.” Carol said stiffly, opening the truck door with a smile anyway.</p>
<p>The truck was towed into the garage and gradually Carol’s brain freeze wore off.</p>
<p>“Tyre and paintwork, yeah?” Maria put her hand on her hips and looked at the truck critically.</p>
<p>“Yep.”</p>
<p>“I think you’ve got another tyre going flat in the back.” Maria said sheepishly.</p>
<p>“Can you sort it out tonight?” Carol asked hopefully.</p>
<p>“Have you got to drive to work tomorrow?” Maria asked.</p>
<p>“I would like to be able to, but if you haven’t got tires, I can walk again.”</p>
<p>“I’ve got tyres.” Maria said with a smile. “Don’t you worry. I’ve got tires.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>Carol stayed at the garage while Maria began fixing the paintwork and changing the tyres. A friend came to pick Monica up for a sleepover and then it was just Carol and Maria, sitting on the concrete floor with Carol handing Maria tools.<p>“I’m guessing you can change a tyre yourself.” Maria said quietly.</p>
<p>“I can. I just don’t have an enormous stack of tyres in my posession like you do.”</p>
<p>“I would have been slightly horrified if you had been in the Air Force and couldn’t change a tire. Not that I guess you have many tyres on planes.”</p>
<p>“Far more than you would ever imagine.” Carol handed over a wrench. “Tell me about car racing.”</p>
<p>“What do you want to know?” Maria finished changing the last tyre and began to examine the chipped paintwork.</p>
<p>“What does it feel like?”</p>
<p>Maria paused for a moment and thought. “It feels powerful.” she got up and walked over to a cabinet. “I've got blue paint but I don’t know if the shades will match. I can order stuff in if you want.”</p>
<p>“It’s okay if it looks different.”</p>
<p>Maria walked back over with three tubes of paint, some brushes and a small glass bottle. “Car racing was the best feeling I’d ever felt. It makes you powerful and free and you’re in a car driving around a track going crazy fast with an adrenaline rush. It does feel pretty good; but it’s hard to tell how much of that was from being twenty and reckless and stupid.”</p>
<p>Carol smiled. “I know the feeling. That’s what planes were like, for me.”</p>
<p>“I imagine you had a lot more rules that we did. We just drove our cars around a dirt track, regardless of insurance or health plans. The leagues were fairly unofficial; some people moved onto proper low level official racing and some people went onto street racing but mostly we just messed about and went as fast as we could.”</p>
<p>“Why did you stop?”</p>
<p>“Combination of seeing one too many car crashes and growing up a bit. I was working, I’d matured, I stayed following it for a couple of years afterwards because I had friends who still competed but then I got a better job, Monica came along and I left it completely.”</p>
<p>“How old is she?”</p>
<p>“Nine. Nearly ten.”</p>
<p>“She’s one of the nicest kids I’ve ever met. You must be very proud of her.”</p>
<p>Maria nodded. “More proud than I can say. She’s smart and kind and everything everyone said she wouldn’t be.”</p>
<p>Carol gave Maria a quizzical look.</p>
<p>“I’m a single parent.” Maria explained. “Always have been. No one thought that I could manage to bring her up properly by myself.”</p>
<p>“For what it’s worth, I don’t think you could have raised her any better.”</p>
<p>“Thank you.” Maria continued painting. “What about you? Kids, relationship?”<br/>“Neither.” Carol held out a second brush.</p>
<p>“What made you join the Air Force?” Maria finished putting paint on top of the scratches and brushed varnish over the top.</p>
<p>“I needed a job. And I wanted to prove myself” Carol was quiet for a moment. “Mostly I just wanted to be able to fly.” she admitted. “So I did.”</p>
<p>“Did you like it?”</p>
<p>“Most wonderful, brilliant thing I’ve ever done.” Carol said wistfully.</p>
<p>Maria finished putting the varnish on and looked back over her shoulder at Carol. For a brief moment she felt as though she could see billions of stars and swirling galaxies in Carol’s eyes; meteors and planets and clouds stretching on for hundreds of millions of miles; swathes of clouds in every colour of the rainbow resting over mountains and deserts and hills. Then she blinked and all she saw was Carol: each and every one of those things joined together with stardust glue to make a human being.</p>
<p>“How long have you been out for?”</p>
<p>“Four years.”</p>
<p>“Was it an injury?” Maria caught herself. “I’m sorry. It’s not my place to ask.” she got to her feet and offered Carol a hand up. She took it.</p>
<p>Carol shook her head as they moved slowly, step by step towards the garage entrance and the desk. “Air Force isn’t allowed to keep openly gay pilots.” she said, well practiced and worn smooth, all bitterness scrubbed out. She put her hands in the pockets of her shorts. “None of the military is allowed to keep openly gay officers.”</p>
<p>“You couldn’t have picked much worse of a job to be gay in.” Maria said.</p>
<p>“Nope.” Carol chuckled. “I picked the right job for me at the time. I wish I could still do it, but leaving was the right thing to do. Being a police officer’s a really good job. I love it.” she stared out at the sunset; the sky opposite the garage entrance stained red and yellow. “I think I love it here.”</p>
<p>“You will do. Even if you don’t love it right now, you will love it one day.”</p>
<p>“I’m sure I will.”</p>
<p>Maria glanced at a clock on the wall. “I know it’s late and you probably want to get home, but before we sort out the bill and stuff-” she took a deep breath. “It’s been a long time since I last did this. Can I take you on a date some time?”</p>
<p>Carol smiled from ear to ear. “I would really, really like that.”</p>
<p>“When are you next off work?”</p>
<p>“I’ve got Thursday afternoon off.”</p>
<p>“Do you want to go for a walk? I’ll close the garage up for the afternoon.”</p>
<p>“Yeah. I’m off at one, I’ll be here at half past?”</p>
<p>Maria smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Okay, bill. Two tyres and some paintwork.”</p>
<p>Carol signed a check and handed it over. “Have you got any spare paper?”</p>
<p>Maria handed some over and Carol scribbled down a string of numbers. “That’s my phone number.”</p>
<p>Maria took another piece of paper and gave it to Carol. “And that’s mine. So you don’t have to push your truck around anymore.”</p>
<p>Carol smiled sheepishly. “Thanks. Am I okay to drive out of here?”</p>
<p>“Yeah.”</p>
<p>“I’ll see you on Thursday. Thank you and have a good night!”</p>
<p>“And you!” Maria waved Carol off and as soon as Carol was out of sight of the garage, she punched the air. Thursday couldn’t come fast enough.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings: mild violence and mentions of alcoholism.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Carol and Maria were silently- secretly- playing snap from their respective desks and trying to avoid catching Fury’s attention when Thor Odinson came in.</p>
<p>“Good morning!” he called cheerily as he walked up to the front desk.</p>
<p>“Mr Odinson. How can we help you today?” Fury asked.</p>
<p>Carol looked up from her cards to look at Thor and was understandably a little surprised by the sigh of a six foot tall man with a blonde French braid and a long beard wearing ripped jeans, wellington boots and a checkered shirt with an enormous pair of sunglasses balanced on top of his head. He also had an English accent. “Who’s that?” she mouthed to Maria.</p>
<p>“He’s a farmer.” she mouths back.</p>
<p>“Wonderfully I am not here to bail out my brother today. He’s stranded on an island owned by Australia. There were some strange noises on the farm last night and then-” he faltered. “I found a weird thing in my barn this morning. I don't know what it is and I don't know how it got there.”</p>
<p>“What does it look like?” Fury asked patiently.</p>
<p>Thor was quiet for a moment. “I think it might be a safe.”</p>
<p>Both Carol and Maria sat bolt upright.</p>
<p>“Hill, have we had any reports of stolen safes?” Fury called back to them.</p>
<p>“None specifically that I;m aware of but something may have been stolen from another district and then been dumped here.” Maria went to one of the cabinets. “I’ll have a look and see if there’s anything in here.”</p>
<p>“Maria, hold up shop here. Carol, you and I will go and take a look. Is it open at all?” Fury asked Thor as he stood up.</p>
<p>Thor shook his head.</p>
<p>“Have you tried to open it?”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“Bring a crowbar.” Fury instructed Carol.</p>
<p>She raised her eyebrows at him. “Are we allowed to crowbar open random safes?”</p>
<p>“Don’t see why not.” Fury said breezily. “There should be one in the store cupboard.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>“Is Thor a regular visitor to the station?” Carol asked once they were in the squad car.<p>“Not regular, but he is a familiar face. He’s had animals rustled a couple of times, other break-ins. Had a kind of a drinking problem, but not the normal sort. He’s European so he is far better at drinking than the locals so he annoyed quite a few people from drunk bets. They didn’t think he would and then they were drunk and there were fights and it got a bit annoying. We’ve reached an agreement with him now.” Fury scowled at a rabbit that dared to run across the road in front of them. “It’s his brother that’s the problem. Organised crime on an international level.”</p>
<p>“Oh.”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Dealing with Interpol was fun.”</p>
<p>In the distance, a set of buildings appeared and a herd of cattle grazed next to the fence along the road.</p>
<p>“Here we go.” Fury said dryly and they soon reached a driveway full of potholes and gravel and sandy soil. They grimaced as they bumped up and down over the uneven road. “There was one point where we had to come down here eso many times the tyres needed replacing.”</p>
<p>“Maybe we should get cushions.” Carol said.</p>
<p>“That sounds like a good idea.” Fury stopped the car in a rather chaotic farmyard. There was a huge run full of chickens that appeared to live in a bright pink coop; a pair of large barns, a set of cowsheds, a tin-roofed shed made of corrugated iron and a long, low house. Thor’s truck was parked outside it and he was waiting outside the front door, a pair of dogs at his feet.</p>
<p>“It’s in this one.” Thor called as Carol and Fury got out of the car and he began to walk towards one of the barns. One of the dogs followed after him but the other waited to investigate Carol and Fury. Fury grimaced as it sniffed his boots and his knees.</p>
<p>“Not a dog person?” Carol asked, leaning down to scratch the dog behind the ears. “Hello!”</p>
<p>“Nah. I prefer cats. It’s why we have Goose, Maria wanted a police dog but I wanted a cat.”</p>
<p>“And you’re in charge.”<br/>“Precisely.”</p>
<p>Thor stuck his head around the barn door. “Are you coming?”</p>
<p>The barn was full of old machinery, random pieces of furniture and bales of hay. Next to the doorway was a huge rectangle of metal with a wheel sticking out of it. “That’s the thing that appeared.”</p>
<p>“Try and open it.” Fury told Carol as she bent down to examine the safe. “But put some gloves on first.”</p>
<p>Carol put on a pair of gloves and duly tried to turn the handle. It didn’t budge. “This isn’t showing any signs of moving. Shall I get the crowbar?”</p>
<p>“Get the crowbar.”</p>
<p>Carol did as she was told and managed to lever the safe open. It made several splintering noises as she did so and when the door swung open, it revealed a rusted lock combination.</p>
<p>“How did water get in there?” Fury wondered. “Can you see anything?”</p>
<p>Carol peered into the safe. “Hang on.” she reached in and pulled out a carved wooden book and an envelope.</p>
<p>“Is there a name on the envelope?” Fury asked.</p>
<p>Carol shook her head. </p>
<p>“Open it. Open them both.”</p>
<p>The box contained a pair of gold necklaces, one with green stones and one with blue stones. The envelope contained a single square of paper, one that appeared to have been cut from a large piece of paper, blue lines, neat margin. “It says ‘Ha, ha’.” Carol turned the piece of paper over. “On the other side it says ‘Tony’.”</p>
<p>“We’ll take it back to the station, let headquarters now. If they have any questions we’ll do more. There's nothing to go on at the moment.” Fury turned to Thor. “Do you know anyone called Tony?”</p>
<p>“My brother did some work for a man named Tony.” Thor said quietly. “He lives away from here. Businessman. My brother got fired.”</p>
<p>“Do you think he could have something to do with this?” Carol asked.</p>
<p>Thor shrugged. “Only met him once, in passing. Can I keep the safe? It looks like it would make a good trough.”</p>
<p>“We’ll need to take it back to the station with us.” Carol said. “Keep it for a month. If we have no other reason to investigate this, you can come back to the station and claim it.”</p>
<p>Thor smiled. “How are you going to get it back there?”</p>
<p>“I don’t think it’s gonna fit in the patrol car.” Carol said. “Can we borrow your tractor?”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>Thor let them borrow the tractor to take the safe back to the station. He drove with Carol next to him in the cab while Fury went ahead of them with flashing lights. Nearly everyone they passed stared at them in astonishment, including about 100 kids in the middle school playground.<p>On Thursday, Carol finished at work, drove home, put on clean jeans, boots and a dark red sweater underneath her leather jacket before driving over to the garage, stomach full of butterflies. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel restlessly and felt her heart lurch into her mouth when she pulled up at the garage. Maria was waiting at the door, and waved at Carol when she saw her.</p>
<p>Carol got out of her truck and walked up the slope. Maria was locking up the garage and wearing black jeans, a t-shirt and a denim jacket. Since they’d last seen each other, her head had been shaved and Carol saw her wearing earrings for the first time. “Hey!”</p>
<p>“Hey! How are you?” Maria slid down the door of the garage and put the keys in her pocket.</p>
<p>“All the better for seeing you. How are you?”</p>
<p>“I can say the same.” Maria smiled and walked down to Carol. “We’ve got two options for the walk. We can go through town and out through the fields, or we could drive out to the forest and walk there. It's about five minutes away.”</p>
<p>“Do you have a preference?”</p>
<p>“The forest.”</p>
<p>“I was hoping you’d say that. I’ll drive.” Carol opened the door of her truck for Maria. “I’ll need directions. I haven’t been to the forest yet.”</p>
<p>“Monica told me she saw you driving past the school in a tractor with Thor Odinson on Tuesday.” Maria said as they drove after telling Carol where to go. “Apparently Sergeant Fury was following you.”</p>
<p>“We had to try and move a safe from his farm to the station.” Carol said. “It was enormous, there was on way we were gonna get it in the squad car. And I wasn’t the one driving; I just sat in the cab to supervise. Trucks and planes and police cars; fully qualified. Tractors I am not. Can you drive tractors?”</p>
<p>“I imagine I could if I tried.” Maria said. “I’ve never tried. Wouldn't like to try and fix one though. The engine would probably be bigger than I am.”</p>
<p>Carol smiled. “Is it left here?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Then it’s the second right, drive for a bit, dirt track on the left. There’s a path that goes on a loop around the outside of the forest for about two miles, takes you back to where you can put your truck.”</p>
<p>“I’ve told you about the most interesting thing that has happened in my week. What’s the most interesting thing that’s happened in yours?”</p>
<p>“There hasn’t really been anything interesting at all. No fancy cars, no particularly damaged ones.” Maria thought for a moment. “We did find a mouldy sandwich in the boot of someone’s car, though. It was so far gone that we couldn’t tell what the original filling was.”</p>
<p>Carol chuckled. “Gross. Is it just you who works at the garage?”</p>
<p>“Most of the time. Monica helps when she’s not at school. There's Peter, sometimes, but that's it."</p>
<p>"You must have a lot of work to do."</p>
<p>"It's not too bad. I don't take on any more than I can manage. I bet you have a lot of work to do, though."</p>
<p>Carol turned down the dirt track and suddenly there were trees instead of cornstalks. "I thought working in a small town like this would mean there weren't masses of work but I couldn't have been more wrong."</p>
<p>Maria laughed. "All the old ladies keeping you on your toes?"</p>
<p>"They most certainly are. Can I park here?"</p>
<p>"Yeah."</p>
<p>They got out of the truck, Carol locked it and Maria led her towards a path through the trees.</p>
<p>"How on earth are there so many trees all the way out here right next to desert and fields?" Carol asked, marvelling at the greenery, not used to much other than yellow and brown. "In fact, how is there desert and fields anyway?"</p>
<p>"I have no idea. Being ‘round here just kind of feels like God threw all the leftover scraps from making the rest of the world into a bowl and tipped it out above us."</p>
<p>They walked in silence for a few moments.</p>
<p>"What's your favourite colour?" Carol asked.</p>
<p>"First proper date question and you ask me what my favourite colour is?" Maria asked slightly incredulously.</p>
<p>"It's very important." Carol said, smiling. "Mine's red."</p>
<p>"Black."</p>
<p>"So you're a vampire and I'm angry." Carol summarized. "And that is why knowing someone’s favourite colour is so important.”</p>
<p>They giggled.</p>
<p>“I’m definitely not a vampire.” Maria said, taking Carol’s hand in hers. “And you don’t seem like an angry person.”</p>
<p>“I’m not. Though my fridge might disagree with you. I still haven’t got the hang of shutting it properly and I blame it entirely.”</p>
<p>“Monica used to love opening the fridge door and then sitting in front of it so that she could make sure the food didn’t run away.”</p>
<p>“That’s adorable.”</p>
<p>“Looking back on it it is, but at the time it was incredibly frustrating.”</p>
<p>“I can imagine.”<br/>An hour later, they found themselves back at Carol’s truck.</p>
<p>“Am I taking you back to the garage or do you want me to drop you off somewhere else?” Carol asked as they got in.</p>
<p>“We can talk about that later.” Maria said, then leaned across the gearstick to kiss Carol, one hand holding on the side of the chair to hold herself up.</p>
<p>Carol cupped Maria’s face with one hand and kissed back until Maria pulled away, smiling.</p>
<p>“That was really nice.” Carol said quietly.</p>
<p>Maria nodded her agreement. “I’d like to do it again sometime, if you want to go on another date. I'd do it more now but I need you to take me back to the garage so I can finish replacing a headlight before I have to go and get Monica from school.”<br/>“I can hold out for the next time.” Carol smiled and began to drive them back.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>Carol’s shift was going very simply.<p>Then there was a beep.</p>
<p>“There’s a break-in at the empty warehouse on the high street.” Maria looked up from her pager. “Do you know the way there?”</p>
<p>Carol nodded and turned the car around to start driving towards the warehouse instead of the library. Their radios crackled to life.</p>
<p>“We’ve got a 736. No reported gunmen. There isn't supposed to be anything in the warehouse so it will probably just be a break and enter. They’ll be out fast when they realise there’s nothing there, might be a car chase.” Fury said over the radio. “Contact me once you’ve got ‘em.”</p>
<p>Carol drove down the road, lights and sirens. There was virtually no traffic; it was one a.m., so the only traffic was passing lorries.</p>
<p>“You take the entrance and I’ll see if I can find a back way in.” Maria told Carol. They pulled up at the warehouse, where a black van was parked in front of an open gated entrance.</p>
<p>“Okay.”</p>
<p>They got out of the car and Carol headed for the door to the warehouse while Maria vanished around the side. Carol nudged the door with her foot to see if it was unlocked; it swung open and she pressed it further with her shoulder. One hand went for the gun at her belt while the other one turned on her torch. “Police! Put your hands in the air!”</p>
<p>She had expected to see two, maybe three, people in the process of trying to rob an empty warehouse. What she had not expected was two men, one elegantly dressed in a dark green suit and the other in a hoodie and tracksuit bottoms, standing over a wooden chest. They appeared to be in the middle of a discussion and Carol wondered if she could see a wad of cash under the jacket of the man in the suit.</p>
<p>They froze. The man in the hoody put his hands up without hesitation but the man in the suit was much more hesitant.</p>
<p>“What’s in the chest?” Carol demanded.</p>
<p>“Nothing.” the man in the suit said smoothly.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I bet that was what you were doing here too. What’s in the box?”</p>
<p>“Nothing.”</p>
<p>“Then why is it here?”</p>
<p>Neither of the men answered, distracted by Maria bursting in through another door. “Mr Odinson, what the hell are you doing here? Your brother said you were stuck on some Australian island! You're under arrest for breaking and entering, anything you say can and will be held against you.”</p>
<p>The man in the hoodie was silent as Carol arrested him. The man in the suit, who did not look like Thor apart from the fact that they were both tall and white, rolled his eyes as Maria pushed him to his knees.</p>
<p>“I got back a couple of days ago.”</p>
<p>“What's in the box?” Maria asked him.</p>
<p>Loki was silent.</p>
<p>“He wouldn’t tell me.” Carol said.</p>
<p>“Let’s put them in the car. We’ll come back for it in a minute.” Maria roughly jerked Loki to his feet and as soon as they were a metre from the box, a third man darted out of the shadows and grabbed the box. He ran for the door that Maria had used and Carol leaped after him, abandoning the man in the hoodie. She jumped onto his back, managing to knock him to the ground. The box flew out of his grasp and skidded along the floor but before Carol could grab it, the man flipped them over and they began to tussle.</p>
<p>Faintly, over the sound of her blood pounding in her ears, Carol heard Maria calling for back-up on her radio. Her torch was lying somewhere on the ground and as they rolled over and over each other, it alternated between blinding her or leaving her in the dark. She managed to elbow the man at the end of his sternum and then punch him under his jaw. She flipped them over again and scrambled onto his back, pulling out another pair of handcuffs. “You’re under arrest.”</p>
<p>There was the sound of another police car pulling up.</p>
<p>“And, lucky you, you get to drive back to the station with Sergeant Fury.” Carol told him. “You’re under arrest for trying to escape a crime scene and resisting arrest. Anything you say can and will be held against you. Get up.”</p>
<p>Fury walked in with a third torch. “Mr Odinson.”</p>
<p>“Sergeant Fury.”</p>
<p>“You’re supposed to be in Australia.”<br/>“This again?” Loki asked impatiently “Can you please just take me back to the station so I can ring my lawyer? I imagine you’ve still got her number.”</p>
<p>Fury rolled his eyes at Loki. “Just get in the car.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>They didn’t open the box until they were back at the station and all lawyers had been rung, other stations contacted and paperwork on the arrests and charges was all written up.<p>“I need to see what’s in the box so I can put it on my report.” Carol told Fury. “Can I open it?”</p>
<p>Fury glanced up from his own report to where the box was perched at the end of his esk “Go ahead.”</p>
<p>Carol put on a pair of gloves and picked up the box. “It’s not locked. It’s just got a latch.” she flipped it open and her eyebrows shot up.” Whoa.”</p>
<p>“What is it?”</p>
<p>“I think you need to come and have a look.”</p>
<p>Inside the box was a purple gem the size of a chicken’s egg, nestled in a red velvet lining.</p>
<p>Fury swore when he saw it. “I was wondering what Odinson was doing in a warehouse like that. This makes a lot more sense now. That’s one heck of a jewel.”</p>
<p>Carol nodded and cautiously took it out of the box. “Should I take out the lining to see if there’s anything hidden in here?”</p>
<p>“Yes. I’m gonna make some phone calls to find out if that was stolen or not. Maria, ring Interpol and ask them if Loki’s allowed to be in the country.”</p>
<p>Fury went into his office.</p>
<p>“Loki was responsible for half of all our phone calls two years ago.” Maria told Carol in a hushed tone as she passed her to go to the phone. “We might end up having to paint the numbers onto the buttons again. They kept wearing off.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>“I’ve brought you dinner!” Carol knocked on the side of the garage wall. Inside, Monica was holding up a wing mirror Maria was attaching to a car and they both looked up with smiles when they saw her. “I had to go out of town so I went to the takeaway on my way home and I wondered if you two might like some as well.”<p>“Thank you so much.” Maria said at the same time as Monica asked “Is it pizza or Chinese?”</p>
<p>“Monica!” Maria scolded.</p>
<p>“Sorry.” Monica said sheepishly. Carol exchanged a grin with her.</p>
<p>“I have got Chinese.” Carol said, walking in. “I hope I haven’t messed up any plans you had for this evening.”</p>
<p>Maria shook her head. “No. We were going to go home, eat leftover lasagna and do a jigsaw. This seems like a much better option.”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t have done the jigsaw.” Monica told Carol. “I hate them. And so does Mom, but she won’t admit it.”</p>
<p>“They’re good for your brain.” Maria said. “Go and get some plates and some cutlery, please.”</p>
<p>Monica went into the kitchen and Carol sat on the floor with Maria.</p>
<p>“It really is very, very kind of you to do this.” Maria said.</p>
<p>“You’re very welcome. Are you happy to eat here or do you not want to eat on the floor?”</p>
<p>“We have eaten so much food while sitting on the floor you would not believe. It stays really cool here in the summer; when everyone else is cooking on the tarmac we have concrete in the shade.” Maria propped the wing mirror up with a jack and balanced it on a roll of duct tape. “That’ll hold.”</p>
<p>“I’ve got plates and forks.” Monica called from the kitchen. “Do we get to eat with chopsticks?”</p>
<p>“You can if you want to.” Carol said. “The woman gave me three pairs.”</p>
<p>“Can I?” Monica asked Maria hopefully.</p>
<p>“Just please don’t make a mess.” Maria said.</p>
<p>“I’ve never eaten with chopsticks before.” Carol said. “Does the rule apply to me too?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>Monica began taking the cartons of food out of the plastic bags and asking Carol about the names scrawled on the lids of each of them. Carol had absolutely no substantive answers to give her, as her high school education had not contained any Mandarin.</p>
<p>“How’s school going, Monica?” Carol asked after they had made suitable amounts of mess with their failed attempts at eating with chopsticks. Maria had managed fine for the first few mouthfuls, under close scrutiny from Carol and Monica waiting for her to make a mistake. Then there was the slightest mistake and they burst into giggles as noodles went down her top.</p>
<p>“School is kinda stupid.” Monica said bluntly.</p>
<p>Maria raised an eyebrow at her. “Monica. We’ve talked about this.  School is not stupid. It helps you not be stupid. Not that you’re stupid; you never have been.”</p>
<p>“School is kinda stupid. I would rather be here helping you. It’s more fun.” Monica turned to Carol. “Did you like school?”</p>
<p>“Not really. I liked some subjects; maths and science. And I was surprisingly good at French. But everything else felt a bit pointless. And I hated lessons. And sitting still. I got in quite a lot of trouble. Do you have a favourite subject?”</p>
<p>“Geography. I want to be an explorer or a paleontologist or a geologist when I grow up.”</p>
<p>“Cool. What would you explore?”</p>
<p>“The Amazon. The world’s largest rainforest. Did you know that…”</p>
<p>When Monica eventually stopped talking to eat, Carol asked Maria what she had been like at school.</p>
<p>“Model student.” Maria said proudly. “I graduated valedictorian.”</p>
<p>“And then she got into car racing and her world went downhill from there.” Monica said cheerily. Maria pretended to be aghast and Carol and Monica giggled.</p>
<p>“I was into car racing before then, thank you, young lady, and I would like to think that my life has significantly improved since then. I didn’t have a business or a mischievous pixie for a daughter when I was eighteen.”</p>
<p>“When I watered the tomato plants last night you said I was an angel.” Monica siad.</p>
<p>“It’s not last night anymore." Maria said pointedly.</p>
<p>"Mr Stark said that I was an imp." Monica said thoughtfully  "But that was after I helped Morgan paint her trike with blackberries."</p>
<p>"Did you say Mr Stark?" Carol looked up suddenly.</p>
<p>Monica nodded.</p>
<p>"Tony Stark?"</p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
<p>"I've heard that name before. He's a local businessman?"</p>
<p>"He used to run the garage. He sold it to me, years ago, and he's Peter Parker's godfather. He used to live in town but moved away after he sold the garage. He lives a couple of towns away. Morgan's his daughter."</p>
<p>"What kind of business is he in?"</p>
<p>“Makes car parts and stuff to do with computers, but the business used to be his dad’s and it did different stuff then. His dad was vile, alcoholic, Tony hated him. He started the garage instead of going straight into the business. Then his father died, he sold the garage, got married and had a baby. She’s the same age as Monica. His father’s business was all kinds of shady. It was supposed to be engineering and technology, and it partly was but then there were stocks and shares and apparently, a great many criminal contacts. Tony had a lot of issues with it at first. He didn’t want to work with criminals; his wife would have left him if he had. He cut ties with all of them, changed the business.”</p>
<p>“Do you know if he went to the police at all?”</p>
<p>Maria shrugged. “Has something happened?”</p>
<p>Carol smiled. “I’m a police officer. I ask questions about everything. I’m also incredibly nosy.”</p>
<p>“Is being a police officer just being paid to be nosy?”</p>
<p>“Nah. That’s being a detective. Being a police officer is being paid to protect people. That’s what it’s supposed to be. A lot of police officers don’t protect people. But that’s what they should all do. And it’s what me and Officer Hill and Sergeant Fury do.</p>
<p>“And Goose.” Monica added.</p>
<p>“And Goose most of all.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings: hypnosis, mention of mugging, mild violence.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>On their second date, Carol and Maria went stargazing.</p>
<p>Monica was at another sleepover and after dropping her off, Monica came to Carol’s house. Carol had been waiting, slightly nervously, in her living room when she heard the knock on the door. Maria hadn’t told her exactly what they were doing for their date; all she had told her when they had spoken on the phone was that it was going to be cold and she would need to take a fleece.</p>
<p>“Hey.” Maria was wearing a yellow t-shirt, jeans and had a denim jacket draped over one arm.</p>
<p>Her truck was parked on the sidewalk. “You ready to go?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Where are we going?” Carol followed Maria down the path and they got into the truck.</p>
<p>“We’re going stargazing.” Maria said, smiling. “And I’ve packed food. I hope you like cold pizza and rice crispie cakes.”</p>
<p>“Cold pizza and rice crispie cakes sound wonderful. Do I correctly guess that Maria was involved in their creation?”</p>
<p>“She was indeed. It's about as far as I've got with her cooking education.”</p>
<p>“I never went much further than boiling pasta.” Carol admitted. “And the air force just feed us out of tins. Maybe you need to give me some cooking lessons as well.”</p>
<p>“We’ll start with toast.” Maria said instantly and they giggle.</p>
<p>“I’m not that hopeless. I can even make sandwiches.” Carol said and they laughed some more. “Where are we going stargazing?”</p>
<p>“The desert.” slowly they got further and further from the centre of town and houses turned to fences, turned to fields, turned to nothing.</p>
<p>“Is there a particular bit of desert we're going to or just anywhere?”</p>
<p>“Just anywhere. Is that okay?”</p>
<p>“Desert’s not private property so we can do whatever we want as long as we don’t end up breaking any other sort of laws.” Carol paused. “Not that there’d be anyone out here to catch us, anyway.”</p>
<p>Maria chuckled. “Had any more tractor experiences with work?”</p>
<p>“Sadly not. However...”</p>
<p>They drove for another five minutes and Carol told Maria about the cow that had been found in the library by the insomniac librarian at four am that she and Fury had then had to go and catch.</p>
<p>“How have I not heard about this?” Maria marvelled as she finally finished laughing and pulled her truck over. “That’s the kind of story we’d normally all have heard about in two days!”</p>
<p>“The librarian and the farmer involved eloped later that day.” Carol said. “They’ve gone to Ohio, apparently. The farmer’s cows all got out onto the road when he didn’t feed them.”</p>
<p>“Now that I did hear about, I just didn't know exactly who it was. What happened to the cows?” Maria jumped out and went to the back of the truck to take the tailgate down.</p>
<p>“Animal Control had a long sunday. They all had to be taken to a rescue farm away.”</p>
<p>“That’s a lot of driving.” Maria laid a blanket out on the bed of the truck and sat down, legs dangling over the side.</p>
<p>“I think it was. Fortunately my shift ended after an hour of cattle supervising while turning the traffic away. Maria had to take over and I got to swan home and sleep.” Carol paused. “After taking several showers to try and get rid of the smell of the cows.”</p>
<p>“You can’t have smelt that bad just after standing by cows.” Maria said.</p>
<p>Carol bit her tongue. “I had a bit of a fall.”</p>
<p>“Ah.” Maria reached blindly behind her for a freezer bag. “Food?”</p>
<p>“Is there anything on the pizza?”</p>
<p>“Ham and cheese and pineapple.”</p>
<p>“Pineapple?” Carol turned to Maria with wide eyes. “Pineapple? On pizza?”</p>
<p>“Yes.” Maria handed her a slice. “Is that going to be a problem?”</p>
<p>Carol shook her head. “I did not take you for pineapple on pizza people.”</p>
<p>“I wasn’t at first but Monica persuaded me to change. Do you like pineapple on pizza?”</p>
<p>“I do indeed. This is really good. My compliments to Monica.”<br/>“Do you have compliments for me?” Maria asked hopefully.</p>
<p>Carol took Maria’s hand in hers. “I do. You're the prettiest pizza maker that I've ever met.”</p>
<p>They ate pizza and rice crispie cakes and then Maria lay back on the blanket, staring up at the stars. Carol lay next to her.</p>
<p>“Do you come here often to stargaze?”</p>
<p>“Can I tell you a secret?” Maria whispered.</p>
<p>“You can tell me any secret you like.” Carol whispered back. “Why are we whispering?”</p>
<p>“I have no idea why we’re whispering but I think it’s fun. Here’s the secret. I’ve never come here for stargazing before. And I’ve never been stargazing at all, before.” Maria said.</p>
<p>“You’ve never been stargazing?” Carol said, astonished. She tangled her fingers with Maria’s. “How have you never been stargazing before?”</p>
<p>“I’ve looked at the stars; I’ve just never purposefully gone out looking for them before.”</p>
<p>“Do you know what any of them are called?”</p>
<p>“I can find the Frying Pan and Orion's Belt and that’s about it.” Maria said. “I bet you know all the stars from being in the Air Force.”</p>
<p>“I know some of them.” Carol said. “Not many. But a few.”</p>
<p>“Can you tell me their names?”</p>
<p>“I can.”</p>
<p>Carol told Maria the names of every star she knew. Then they made up names and origin stories for all the others.</p>
<p>“It’s getting really cold now.” Maria murmured after a long time.</p>
<p>“Do you want to head back?”</p>
<p>“Yes. I have heating in the cab.”</p>
<p>“That sounds like a wonderful idea.”</p>
<p>They got back into the cab and Maria took the blanket in with her. “In case the heating doesn't warm up fast enough for me.”</p>
<p>“You really hate the cold, don’t you?”</p>
<p>“Yep.” Maria turned the lights and the heating on, then draped the blanket over her shoulders as she leaned over to kiss Carol.</p>
<p>“Maybe next time we could kiss somewhere other than a car.” Carol suggested after a few minutes.</p>
<p>“So I get a third date, then?”</p>
<p>“Most definitely.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>The third date was a week later.<p>Carol and Maria had taken to calling each other every night. “I’ve been working on my cooking skills.”<br/>“Have you?”</p>
<p>“I’ve made a stew. With dumplings.”</p>
<p>“There’s a huge difference between stew and dumplings and just about managing to boil pasta.”</p>
<p>“It is. Turns out that there are these things called recipe books. They’re quite useful.”</p>
<p>Maria laughed and it was one of the most gorgeous sounds that Carol had heard; it was just as wonderful as the first time she had heard it, though now it gave her rather more butterflies. “And how do I know that you aren’t making this up to try and impress me? It sounds like an incredibly fast transformation. Where did you get the recipe books from?”</p>
<p>“From the library. I met the new librarian, who seems considerably more severe than the last one.”</p>
<p>“That can't be hard. You could have walked in, taken a book and walked out with it without borrowing it and she'd barely even have noticed.” Maria was quiet for a moment. “I think I might need proof of the transformation of your culinary skills”</p>
<p>“Do you, now?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“Then why don’t you come ‘round for dinner tomorrow? Or when you’re free next, I'll make a beef stew with dumplings and pasta that's been boiled to within an inch of its life to make sure it’s edible and you can see just how far I’ve come.”<br/>“I would like that very much.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>Carol hugged Maria on the doorstep and as soon as the door was shut, she kissed her. “There’s been a slight change of plan. We’re still having beef stew with dumplings but I boiled the pasta over so badly that it swam out of the pot, down the front of the oven and onto the floor. I was not able to save any of it, so I have made toast as a substitute.”<p>“The pasta fell out of the pot?” Maria laughed. “That’s-”</p>
<p>“My worst cooking incident ever.” Carol said, pulling a weary face. “It's almost ready. I've just got a few last things to finish up. The table’s over there.”</p>
<p>Carol led Maria over to the table behind the sofa, where she pulled out a chair. “My lady.”</p>
<p>“Thank you.” Maria sat down and looked around the living room and dining room, craning her neck to see through the doorway to the kitchen. “It's really nice in here.”</p>
<p>“Thanks.”</p>
<p>“I think you still have a few pieces of pasta on the kitchen floor. They are underneath the cupboard door next to the oven.” Maria called.</p>
<p>Carol looked back over her shoulder to give Maria a mischievous grin. “Oops. Where’s Monica tonight?”</p>
<p>“She is with her grandparents. She’s staying with them for the weekend; I’m driving over to collect her tomorrow afternoon.”</p>
<p>Carol stood in line with the doorway and tapped her fingers on her legs a couple of times, staring into the distance. “It’s Saturday, correct?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“I've been working nights all week.” Carol said sheepishly. “Keeping track of days of the week and also cooking dinner is too much for me to handle at the same time.”</p>
<p>They ate dinner and Maria applauded Carol’s stew- and the toast- with all due praise. Then they sat and talked and laughed until Carol saw something out of the corner of her eye through the window. She stood up suddenly and held her hand out to Maria. “Come on.”</p>
<p>“What is it?”</p>
<p>“You’ll see.” Carol led her to the back door, which she flung open, then out into the garden. “Look.”<br/>The sky was red and gold and pink with the sunset and the clouds on the horizon were edged with gold. Small dark birds were soaring above them.</p>
<p>“Swallows.” Carol said in awe, staring up at them. “Or least, I think they are. And even if they aren’t, that's what I’ve decided they are now.”</p>
<p>“It’s beautiful.”</p>
<p>Carol nodded and placed her hands over Maria’s as Maria wrapped her arms around her from behind, hooking her chin over Carol’s shoulder. “You ever want to make like swallows and fly out of here?”</p>
<p>“Only if you’re coming too.” Maria whispered and tilted her head to kiss Carol's neck. “Do you?”</p>
<p>“Only if you’re coming too.”</p>
<p>Carol was not a religious woman. She never had been, didn't think she ever would be. But then, right then, at that very moment, when the world was painted pretty and her soul was happy to be on Planet Earth for the first time in years, it was hard not to want something to worship and thank for all she had been given.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-</p>
</div>Carol and Maria had been dating for a couple of months when Maria had to go to the next town over to pick up a special car part for a client. Picking up the part clashed with the time Maria needed to pick Monica up from school.<p>Carol was standing on her doorstep talking to May, who had come round to collect the month’s rent, when she heard the phone ringing. “I’d better go. I’ll see you around!”</p>
<p>“Okay. Thanks Carol!”</p>
<p>Carol went back into the house and answered the phone, pushing a pile of magazines off the sofa so that she could sit down while she talked. “Hello?”</p>
<p>“Hello!” Monica called cheerily.</p>
<p>Carol laughed with surprise. “Hello Monica! To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?”</p>
<p>“On Tuesday, Mom has to go out of town to get a car part for that foreign car she's been working on, so she isn’t going to be able to pick me up from school that day. We were wondering if, if you’re free, could come and pick me up and look after me until Mom gets back? She thinks she’ll be gone for around an hour.”</p>
<p>“On Tuesday? Hang on, let me just check the rota.” Carol put the phone down to look at the roata pinned on her noticeboard. Her shift finished an hour before she would need to pick Monica up. “I can do it.”</p>
<p>“Yay!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
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</div>Carol was nervous about picking Monica up from school. She'd never been put in charge of picking up a child up from school before and she had no idea how the teachers would react to someone other than Maria collecting Monica.<p>The other parents and older siblings waiting at the school gates looked at her with raised eyebrows as she parked her truck on the sidewalk and waited near the throng of people. A bell rang inside the school and children came tumbling out of buildings and into the playground. Monica waved at Carol and made her way over to her.</p>
<p>“Mom told my teacher that you would be picking me up.” Monica called. “And I pointed you out to my teacher from my classroom. She recognized that you’re one of the police officers and she said that it was fine for me to go with you.”</p>
<p>“Okay.” Carol gestured to her truck. “Let’s go, then.”</p>
<p>Monica got into the truck with Carol and waved at some of her friends as they drove away. “Have you managed not to lose the key?”</p>
<p>“It's in my pocket.” Carol said. Maria had given her the key for their house the day before. “How was your day at school? Did you learn anything interesting?”</p>
<p>“I did. I learned how to count to 50 in Spanish.”</p>
<p>“That sounds fun.”</p>
<p>“It wasn’t. We learnt how to do it last week but we had to do it again. Then we did science. We’re growing tomatoes under different conditions to learn about plants and what they need to grow and how different quantities of things they need to grow affect growth. We've got little pots in loads of different places in school. There are some on the windowsill, some on the desks and bookshelves and in cupboards and there’s even one in the teachers’ fridge.”</p>
<p>“Do you enjoy science at school?” Carol asked.</p>
<p>“Yeah. I like science. I have a book on science experiments and last summer Mom and I did loads of them. We did one like the plant one, except with sunflowers. I think we did it wrong because all the sunflowers frew the same amount. I think Mom felt sorry for the ones we’d given less and put them all in the sun so they could grow.”</p>
<p>Carol laughed. “That kind of sounds like something you would do.”</p>
<p>“Mom got there first.” Monica said slightly sheepishly.</p>
<p>They giggled and Carol turned up a street. “You live on this road, don’t you?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. The house with the pink and blue flowers and the really tall grass.”</p>
<p>“I remember from when I came and asked if you knew anything about the graffiti.” Carol stopped the truck.</p>
<p>“Okey dokey; what’s the plan when we get inside, little miss?”</p>
<p>“I have some homework to do later. But I’ll probably wait and do it with mom. We should do something more fun instead.” Monica said as she walked up the path behind Carol.</p>
<p>“Have you got any ideas of what you want to do?” Carol pulled the key out of her pocket. She held it out to Monica. “You want to open it?”</p>
<p>Monica nodded eagerly and unlocked the front door. “Well, normally if we come home after school instead of going to the garage, I have a snack and tell mom about my day and then I do my homework while mom does paperwork and if I get stuck she helps me. Then I play outside or in my room and mom makes dinner and then we water the plants and sometime I get to watch TV and then I go to bed.”</p>
<p>“Sounds like we should start with a snack, then.” Carol said, looking around the hallway. There were framed pictures of Maria and Monica and what appeared to be other family members on the walls and a pair of raincoats hanging on a coat stand. “Do you want me to take my shoes off?”</p>
<p>“You can keep them on. I’ll lock the door.”</p>
<p>A few minutes later, Carol and Monica were sitting opposite each other playing snap while Monica ate peanut butter on toast and Carol drank milk because neither Carol nor Monica could work out how to operate Maria’s fancy coffee machine.</p>
<p>“You are the best police officer this town has ever had.” Monica said when she won the fourth round of snap. </p>
<p>“You’re just saying that because none of the other police officers have ever lost this man consecutive games of snap to you.” Carol said, miffed. “Can we find something else to go that I might have a better chance of beating you at?”</p>
<p>Monica giggled. “Yes.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
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</div>Maria came back from her trip to find Monica and Carol hula hooping in the garden. “You two look like you’re having fun.”<p>“Hey Mom!” Monica put down her hoop and ran to give Maria a hug. “Did you get the part?”</p>
<p>“Yep. Dropped it off at the garage on the way here. Did you have a good day?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. I beat Carol at snap four times.”</p>
<p>“It was awful.” Carol said. “Your daughter is a genius at cards.”</p>
<p>“We’re more equal at hula-hooping.” Monica said.</p>
<p>“Why don’t you carry on playing out here for a bit longer so you can be superior at hula hooping as well as at cards and I’ll talk to Carol inside for a bit before she goes?” Maria suggested.</p>
<p>“‘Kay! Thank you for playing with me and picking me up from school, Carol!” Monica waved.</p>
<p>“You’re welcome!”</p>
<p>“Thank you so much for picking her up.” Maria said once they were inside the house.</p>
<p>“No problem. It was fun.”</p>
<p>“Was she well behaved?”</p>
<p>“She was wonderful.”</p>
<p>“Thank goodness. I'm guessing you need to get home, do you wanna meet up sometime later this week?”</p>
<p>“That’d be great.”</p>
<p>“I’ll ring you.” Maria said and they began to walk to the door. “Doing anything fun tonight?”</p>
<p>“Not really. Cooking and cleaning. And sleeping. My shift starts early tomorrow.”</p>
<p>They reached the door; neither of them made any move for Carol to leave.</p>
<p>“Do you wanna stay for dinner?” Maria asked hopefully.</p>
<p>Carol smiled from ear to ear. “I’d love to.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
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</div>“There’s been a diamond theft.” Maria said as she put the phone down.<p>“Is it a possible ‘moved it to another drawer’ thief?” Carol asked as she examined the community noticeboard she was putting together in the lobby.</p>
<p>“Given that the necklace was snachted off the victim’s neck in broad daylight outside the grocery store, not really.”</p>
<p>“A mugging?” Carol put down her box of split pins and put her hat on. “Who was the victim?”</p>
<p>“Woman who runs the toddler group at the Methodist church.”</p>
<p>“Is that all she does?”</p>
<p>“Pretty much.”</p>
<p>“Did she know who it was who mugged her?”</p>
<p>Maria checked her notes as Carol started the car up. “She said she didn't recognize the car he got in. Seemed to think that she's seen Thor but wasn’t the man who mugged her.”</p>
<p>“And it was a diamond?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. An orange one.”</p>
<p>“Was it obvious that it was a diamond?”</p>
<p>“No idea. But I guess we’ll find out.”</p>
<p>There was a small crowd of people outside the grocery store, most of them old ladies and all of them gossips.</p>
<p>Maria groaned when she saw them. “This is going to take forever if they all saw the mugging.”</p>
<p>“Dibs on talking to the victim.” Carol got out of the car before Maria could beat her to it.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
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</div>The whole incident was entirely bizarre.<p>The woman who had been mugged claimed that a man wearing sunglasses and a purple tank top had walked up to her, pulled her necklace off and then ran to the car, which was being driven by a man in a mask. One of the other women there claimed to have seen the car stop outside the pharmacy and a man in purple get thrown out, though she had no idea where he had gone after that and one of the other women seemed to think that she’d seen an alien, but as she was quickly shushed by the rest of the group, Carol and Maria chose not to investigate that particular claim.</p>
<p>Maria made a phone call to Fury and they told the women to go to the station for him to take their statements.</p>
<p>“Where should we go first?” Carol asked Maria. “To Thor to see if he knows anything about this or where his brother might be? Or do we go and try to find the man in the purple tank top?”</p>
<p>“Look for the guy in the purple tank top on the way to Thor’s farm.” Maria decided. “I’ve got a bad feeling I know who he is.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
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</div>It was not difficult for them to find the man in the purple tank top. He was lying on the pavement opposite the pharmacy with his hands over his face, groaning slightly.<p>Carol stopped the car and she and Maria stared at the man for a few moments.</p>
<p>“Do you think he’s safe to go up to?” Carol asked Maria eventually.</p>
<p>Maria peered out of the window. “Yeah.”</p>
<p>“They got out of the car. “Who do you think he is?”</p>
<p>“Someone Natasha knows. Guy called Clint Barton.”</p>
<p>“Has he got a bad track record?”</p>
<p>“He is chaos personified.” Maria said. “Chaos and confusion and clumsiness. Do you know sign language?”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“Oh well.” Maria said no more and then they stood next to the man, looking down at him. “This is an interesting place to find you, Clint.” Maria said dryly.</p>
<p>The man took his hands away from his face and he groaned when he saw them. “Why are you here?”</p>
<p>“‘Cuz apparently you just mugged someone.” Maria said, hands on hips. </p>
<p>“Are you sure you’ve got that the right way around?” Clint put his hands on either side of his head and sat up. “My head hurts so much I think I might be the one who got mugged.” he looked around him. “And given that I can't remember how I got here, and I know I didn’t drink last night, I think I probably was.”<br/>“Someone else says they saw you get pushed out of a car after the mugging, over there.” Carol gestured to the other side of the road.</p>
<p>“That would explain why my head hurts so much.” Clint said calmly.</p>
<p>“Can you remember anything before that? Anything to do with stealing the necklace, the woman you stole it from?”</p>
<p>“The car.” Clint said slowly. “The car, how- what car was it? Who was driving it?”</p>
<p>“We don’t know.” Maria said. “Why don’t we drive you back to the station? We can get your head checked over, see if you get any memories back. We’ll keep an eye on you until a doctor can give you a verdict.”</p>
<p>Clint thought on the offer.</p>
<p>“If you refuse, we can arrest you on suspicion of robbery.” Carol said.</p>
<p>“And we need to search you to make sure you haven’t got the necklace on you.” Maria said.</p>
<p>“WIll you pay for the doctor?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“I’ll come with you.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
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</div>The doctor seemed rather puzzled as he checked Clint over. He excused himself for a moment, went out to his car to fetch a medical dictionary,which he consulted, then came back to Clint. “Mr Barton, have you got any particular words stuck in your head?”<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Any random words.”</p>
<p>Carol and Maria exchanged a confused look.</p>
<p>“A vegetable.” Clint said. “It begins with C. It’s white. Can’t remember what it’s called.”</p>
<p>“Cauliflower?” Maria prompted and suddenly Clint jumped to his feet and wrapped his hands around her neck, snarling.</p>
<p>“Give me your valuables!”</p>
<p>“Hey!” Carol yelled and pulled Clint off Maria, pushing him back onto the chair. “Clint Barton, you’re under arrest for-”</p>
<p>“Don’t arrest him!” the doctor said. “It’s just as I thought. He's been hypnotised. He’s not responsible for his actions. I imagine that's why he couldn’t remember anything since last night. Those memories should have come back now, I hope. Who do you know who can do hypnosis?”</p>
<p>Clint swore. “Loki.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings: mentions of multiple crimes, a sprained ankle</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was Carol’s turn to feed Goose. She took a tin out of the cupboard reserved specifically for Goose’s possessions, emptied it into a bowl and tried not to accidentally step on Goose’s paws. Goose had a tendency to twirl in and out of the legs of whoever was about to feed her, getting in the way as much as was possible for an average sized cat. “Hang on, hang on, you can have it in a minute.”</p><p>Carol walked over to the mat where Goose’s bowls went and placed the food down. She took a step back as Goose darted forward to get at her food and somehow, as the two of them went in opposite directions at the same time, Carol found herself flying sideways and landing on the floor. Her ankle made a worrying noise. “Ow!”</p><p>She landed with a thud and a crash, her head smacking against the floor. “Ow ow ow ow ow!”</p><p>“You alright?” Maria called.</p><p>“No.” Carol called back. “Goose made me trip over and I think I’ve done my ankle in.”</p><p>“Is Goose okay?” Fury called out, sounding very worried.</p><p>Carol groaned and rolled over so that she could see how Goose was.</p><p>Goose, the annoying, smug creature, was eating her food happily with not a care in the world about what had just happened.</p><p>Carol was very good at being very bitter. “She is absolutely fine.”</p><p>Maria walked over to her. “You want a hand?”</p><p>Carol nodded. “I think I might have sprained my ankle.”</p><p>“Ah.”</p><p>“More like ow.”</p><p>“Sir, could you get the first aid kit” Maria called as she pulled Carol onto one foot.</p><p>“I’ll go and see if there’s any of Natasha’s stash of ice cream left in the freezer.” Fury said. “You can put a tub of it on your foot.”</p><p>“Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow.” Carol limped across the station floor to her desk. She sat down heavily and put her food on the desk, wincing.</p><p>“Get your boot off. And the sock.” Maria ordered.<br/>Carol carried on making pained noises and swearing. She and Maria stared at her foot in horror when her sock came off. It had already turned purple.</p><p>“Hurry up with that ice cream, please!” Carol called.</p><p>“There is no way you can work with your foot like that.” Maria decided, hands on hips. “There is also no way you can drive home. Or walk home. Or manage by yourself at home.”</p><p>Carol stared at her foot sadly. “Stupid foot. Stupid cat.”</p><p>“If you keep on being horrid about Goose, I will take even longer to walk over to you with this ice cream.” Fury threatened. He did a double take when he saw Carol’s foot. “On second thought, I think you could do with some compassion.”</p><p>Carol reached out for the ice cream and put it on her foot. “I need to file an injured-at-work thingy.”</p><p>“I’ll go and find you the form.” Maria offered. “And do you want some painkillers?”</p><p>“Yes please.”</p><p>“Once you’re rested and we’ve found someone who can take care of you for the next few days, I’ll drive you home.” Fury said. “Unless you know someone who could do that for you too.”</p><p>“Uhh…” Carol thought for a moment. “The only people I know here who could be up for keeping an eye on me- they would probably agree to picking me up but the time-”</p><p>“Oh, for the sake of everything good and right just tell me who it is so I can ring them!” Fury yelled. “And then you need to get Natasha on the phone, Maria, see if she's free for the next few days.”</p><p>“Could you call Maria Rambeau?” Carol asked.</p><p>“Yep.”</p><div class="center">
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</div>Half an hour later, Maria walked into the station and stared at Carol and her ankle. “How the hell did you manage to do that?”<p>“Goose made me fall over.” Carol said pitifully. “Are you sure you’re okay to drive me home?”</p><p>“Yep.” Maria said. “I’ll drive you home and you can tell me where to find your stuff and then we’re going to the garage where I can monitor you and then we will go back to my house where you will be staying until your ankle is better.”<br/>“I did not tell you to ask Maria to do all that.” Carol said to Fury.</p><p>Fury put his hands up. “I had nothing to do with it. That’s all Maria.” he went back to his desk. “Ring me when you’re ready to come back.”</p><p>“Yes sir.”</p><p>“Just so you know, Monica will not be taking your side in this.” Maria told Carol as they wobbled their way out of the station, waving goodbye to Maria as they went.</p><p>“What do you mean? I thought she liked me?” Carol balanced against the side of the truck while Maria opened the door.</p><p>“She does like you.” Maria said. “She likes you a lot. You’re one of her favourite adults. However, she likes Goose more than she likes you.”</p><p>“Damn.” Carol let Maria help her up into the passenger seat. “She won’t even have the slightest bit of sympathy for me?”</p><p>“Is Goose okay?”</p><p>“Goose is fine. I was feeding her and then as I stepped back from her bowl, she went forwards and I went sideways. I'm the one who got all the damage.”</p><p>“There is a slight possibility that she may have some sympathy for you when she finds out that Goose is okay, but I’m not sure how far it will hold. She’ll mostly just blame you for putting Goose at risk.”</p><p>“Are you serious about letting me stay with you until my ankle is better?”</p><p>“Of course! You can come to the garage with me during the day and do all my paperwork for me.”</p><p>“Lucky me.”</p><p>“Lucky you!”</p><p>“For real, though, are you sure?”</p><p>“Of course I’m sure.” Maria said. “It’ll be fun.”</p><p>“You’ll get fed up of me fairly quickly.” Carol said.</p><p>“I dunno about that.”</p><div class="center">
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</div>They went to Carol’s house, where Maria insisted that she stayed sitting on the sofa while Maria went looking all over the house to try and find the various things Carol needed. After that debacle and the large amounts of yelling up the stairs it involved, they went to the garage and Carol was left to sit at Maria’s desk with a cup of coffee while Maria collected Monica from school.<p>Carol stayed quiet as they walked up to the garage, Monica eagerly telling Maria about the day she’d had. Maria interrupted her. “Monica, there’s a surprise waiting for you in the garage.”</p><p>“What kind of surprise is it?”</p><p>“It's not a present or a thing. But it is a good surprise. Why don;t you go and have a look?”</p><p>Carol smiled as she heard Monica running up the tarmac to come and look. Monica beamed from ear to ear when she saw her. “Carol!” Monica ran around the desk and hugged her. “What are you doing here? And why are you still in your uniform shirt?”</p><p>“I forgot I still had that on.” Carol mused. “I should probably put a clean one on.” she gestured to her foot, which was now bandaged with an ice pack attached to it and balanced on top of a chair. “I had a bit of an accident at work and sprained my ankle. I’m gonna have to take a few days off while it gets better and I’m gonna be staying with you so your mom can keep an eye on me and make sure I don’t do anything stupid.”</p><p>“What happened to your ankle to make it sprain?” Monica asked, putting down her bag and walking closer to Carol’s ankle so she could examine it.</p><p>Maria and Carol exchanged a look. Monica noticed. “What?” she turned to Maria and asked in a whisper, “Should I not have said that?”</p><p>“What you said was fine.” Carol said. “It's just that, uh, Goose was involved.” she winced.</p><p>“Is she okay?” Monica asked, eyes wide.</p><p>“She’s fine.” Carol assured her. “I put her food down and then took a step back as she went forwards for her food and I fell over sideways and sprained my ankle.”</p><p>“You should have watched where you were going.” Monica said sagely. “How long are you going to be off work for?”</p><p>“Hopefully not too long.”</p><p>“Are you going to be sleeping in our house?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Where’s she gonna sleep?” Monica asked Maria. “She’ll have to sleep downstairs or otherwise you’ll hurt your ankle going upstairs. Maybe you should sleep on the dining table.”</p><p>“What if I fall off in the night?”</p><p>“We can put some cushions down for you.” Monica said breezily. “Will you help me with my homework?”</p><p>“As long as I get to sleep on the sofa or the floor instead of the dining table.” Carol bargained.</p><p>“Deal.”</p><div class="center">
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</div>“If you carry on treating me like the queen of England, I will move in with you.” Carol told Monica and Maria. She was sitting on the sofa with her foot on a pile of cushions, a mug of coffee from Maria’s fancy machine and the TV remote.<p>Monica giggled. “You don’t look like the queen of England. Try and talk like her.”</p><p>Carol put on the most ridiculous posh English accent she could possibly conjure up and they all burst into giggles.</p><p>“Here’s a deal.” Maria said. “We carry on treating you like the queen of England and make you dinner and in return you tell us funny stories from work.”</p><p>“Deal.”</p><div class="center">
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</div>“The garage is way more fun than the police station.” Carol told Maria as they drove back to the house the next day. “There’s way less gossip though.”<p>“Morally, that’s probably for the best.” Maria pointed out.</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“‘Coz I didn’t get any homework at school today, can I do a jigsaw with Carol instead?” Monica asked as they parked and got out of the car.</p><p>“You may, but I want you to peel some potatoes for me first.”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>Maria helped Carol hop through the hallway to the sofa and went to take her shoes off while she helped Carol get comfortable.</p><p>“Should I bring some potatoes and some bowls into the front room?” Monica called from the hallway.</p><p>“Yeah.” Maria called back. “Carol, please tell me you know how to peel potatoes.”</p><p>“I know how to peel potatoes.” Carol promised her.</p><p>“Mom and Carol, I have a question.” Monica said as she walked into the kitchen.</p><p>“What’s your question?” Carol asked.</p><p>“Are you two dating?” Monica’s voice was as cheerful and as chipper as always.</p><p>Carol and Maria froze and stared at each other.</p><p>“What do you want to tell her?” Carol whispered.</p><p>“She’s too smart for us to be able to lie to her. She won’t believe us if we lie to her.”</p><p>“Are you happy to tell her?”</p><p>Maria nodded.</p><p>“I can hear you whispering!” Monica yelled at them. “I can’t hear what you’re saying but I can hear that you’re whispering.”</p><p>Carol and Maria exchanged a smile.</p><p>“We are dating.” Maria called back. “How did you work it out?”</p><p>Monica, who had cheered after Maria’s confirmation of her relationship with Carol, came jumping into the room, bouncing around and clapping. “Coz I am a genius! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!”</p><p>Carol and Maria laughed with joy at Monica’s joy.</p><p>“Is it okay that I’m dating your mom?” Carol asked Monica.</p><p>Monica nodded. “Of all the people I know, you’re the one I most want to be dating my mom.”</p><p>“I'm honoured.” Carol said.</p><p>Monica put her hands on her hips and her face became stern. “I have some conditions though.”</p><p>Carol shot Maria a worried look. “Uh oh.”</p><p>“You two work out conditions and I’ll get to work on dinner.” Maria said smoothly and left the room.</p><p>Monica sat down next to Carol. “So.”</p><p>“Um.”</p><p>“Do you promise to be nice to my mom?”</p><p>“I promise.”</p><p>“Do you promise to give me good presents at Christmas and my birthday?”</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>“Do you also promise to make sure that my mom always gets me good presents at Christmas and my birthday?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Okay, good. Will you always make time for us and give us any news on Goose first?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Now the serious bit.” Monica folded her arms. “Do you love my mom?”</p><p>Carol was quiet for a moment.</p><p>“If you don’t know, that’s okay, but you have to  change your answer to ‘I think I will love her one day’ or ‘I don’t know if I will love her’, if it’s the second answer I will be very unimpressed.”</p><p>“I’m sure of my answer.” Carol said quietly. “I love your mom very much.”</p><p>Monica cheered, throwing her arms in the air. “Yay!” she looked around and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Have you told her yet?”</p><p>Carol shook her head.</p><p>“Are you going to tell her?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“Can you tell her soon coz I think it would make her really happy.” Monica said wisely. “And does this mean you might move in with us one day and be an extra kind-of mom for me.”</p><p>“If your mom lets me.”</p><p>“I’m sure she will.” Monica decided. “And if she doesn’t let you, I will.”</p><p>Carol smiled. “Thanks.”</p><p>Monica leaned away and tipped her head back to yell. “I approve of Carol! She can stay being your girlfriend!”</p><p>Maria walked in and smiled dryly. “Thank you.”</p><p>Monica beamed. “You’re welcome.” she bounded out of the room.</p><p>“I heard all of that.” Maria told Carol quietly.</p><p>“I thought you might have done.”</p><p>“I love you.</p><p>“I love you too.”</p><p>They smiled.</p><p>“Ready to peel some potatoes for me?” Maria asked overly-cheerfully, both of them smiling at the ridiculous nature of their conversation.</p><p>“Always.” Carol said dramatically.They burst into giggles and got to work peeling the potatoes.</p><div class="center">
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</div>When Carol went back to work, there was a large box of doughnuts waiting in the station, partly as a leaving-until-further-notice gift from Natasha and partly as a welcome back gift for Carol.<p>There was silence as she walked in; Natasha was packing her things away from her desk while Fury was having what looked like a very serious phone call with someone and Maria pretended to be doing her paperwork when in reality she was trying to listen into Fury’s call. She and Natasha nodded to her in greeting and Carol stood by her desk.</p><p>Goose, who was sitting in her bed, glared at Carol.<br/>Carol glared back.</p><p>As they waited for Fury to finish the phone call- Natasha was hovering by the door and not showing any signs of leaving any time soon- Maria wrote something on a piece of paper, folded it into a paper plane and threw it to Carol. She unfolded it and read the contents.</p><p>Fury’s on the phone about Loki and all the jewel stuff. County commissioner is telling him what Loki confessed to.</p><p>Carol frowned and drew a question mark on the plane before throwing it back to Maria.</p><p>The exchange continued.</p><p>Loki got arrested at an airport and they got him to confess to a bunch of stuff because the found loads of evidence. And Clint got his memories back and told us what had been going on.</p><p>Fury hung up. Maria, Carol and Natasha tried to act as if they hadn’t been trying to listen in on the conversation.</p><p>“Is everything okay sir?” Maria asked innocently.</p><p>“As I’m sure you all worked out, that was the county commissioner calling about Loki Odinson, who hopefully will not be bothering us for a very long time seeing as he had about-” Fury glanced down at a piece of paper on his desk. “120 years’ worth of stuff that he’s going to be tried for.”</p><p>“120?” Carol asked incredulously. “Damn.”</p><p>“What are they trying him for?” Natasha asked.</p><p>“Manslaughter, assault, blackmail, attempted murder, second degree murder, ordering someone’s death, robbery, burglary, organised crime, list goes on. Turns out he’s also got a couple of unpaid parking tickets, just to round things out.”</p><p>“Will he get in trouble for hypnotising Clint?” Natasha asked.</p><p>“Probably.”</p><p>“What was the deal with all the jewels?” Maria asked.</p><p>Fury leaned back in his chair and scratched his head. “Now, the jewels. That’s a heck of a lot more complicated.”</p><p>“How complicated?” Natasha asked.</p><p>“The kind of complicated that they give to your higher-ups and not to you or me. Also the kind of case with so much money involved it could buy out this time three times over.”</p><p>Carol, Maria and Natasha exchanged a look of quiet admiration.</p><p>“You gonna tell us more?” Carol asked. “I’m intrigued now.”</p><p>“Loki and his little gang of merry men were after a group of jewels called the Infinity Stones. Six of them; a diamond, a ruby, an emerald, an amethyst, a sapphire and an orange diamond. Along with individually being of enormous value because they’re priceless jewels, they’re also a prized heirloom to one of the old Italian mob families in New York. They got stolen from them by a rival family twenty years ago or something and the jewels got split up. Apparently, Loki had a bit of a falling out with this particular family that the jewels belonged to and he was hoping to win back their favour by finding the jewels for them.</p><p>“Turns out most of the jewels ended up around here. The diamond necklace that Clint Barotn got sent to steal was one of them, the orange diamond. The emerald and the sapphire we got from the necklaces in the safe at Thor Odinson’s farm were two of them, apparently Howard Stark bought them and Tony then got rid of them so the mob wouldn’t come after him. Then there were a couple of others; a ruby and the yellow diamond got found at the address graffitied on the diner wall and the amethyst we intercepted.” Fury finished.</p><p>“How on earth did this place end up at the centre of all that?” Natasha marvelled.</p><p>Fury shrugged. “There was one other thing. The boss wanted to know how a station run by a black man, three lesbians and a cat named Goose had the highest satisfaction rating with locals in the state. Asked for our secret recipe.”</p><p>“What did you tell him?” Carol asked.</p><p>Fury smiled. “A black man, three lesbians and a cat named Goose. He hung up on me.”</p><p>“That alone calls for celebratory donuts.” Carol declared. “And that way Goose won’t come near and trip me up again.”</p><p>Goose glared at her some more.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Epilogue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A year later, Carol had moved in with Maria and Monica. They lived in the house with the pink and blue flowers in the front garden with Monica’s rabbit, who had been named Duck in tribute to Goose. Carol went to work at the police station where things had become rather more calm; at one point there was a three month stretch where the most interesting thing that happened was a series of sightings of a mysterious red creature at the edge of the woods and in some people’s gardens that was at first thought to be an alien but then later turned out to be an escaped cow. </p><p>After work, when her shift didn’t end at ridiculous times of day or night, Carol would go to the garage and sitwith Maria, Monica too once school was over, doing paperwork and talking and resting in the easy silence they had managed to find for themselves. Occasionally Carol would change a tyre or a headlight and Maria was slowly being persuaded into teaching her how to paint cars.</p><p>Carol tried to make sure as many of her days off as possible were on weekends now. They took Monica for long walks in the fields, bike rides through the woods, swimming in the pool the next town over. Much to Monica’s amusement, Carol couldn’t swim and they spent many happy hours there laughing as Monica tried to teach Carol to do more than just paddle in the shallows and flounder in the deep bits while Maria sat at the side holding the towels and smiling. They’d spent Christmas together; Carol made good on her promise and made sure that Monica got the presents she wanted, though both Carol and Maria flatly refused to buy her her own car at the humble age of ten.</p><p>They had Thanksgiving, watched the leaves change colour and felt the air cool, saw spring rise out of the dirt with the flowers that grew in the cracks in the pavement, slowly eased their way through life until the dark began to wane and the summer returned.</p><p>“Moving here was the best decision I ever made.” Carol told Maria one evening. They were sat on the bonnet of Maria’s truck, which was parked in the garage for the brake pads to be replaced, watching out onto the world. The sun was setting over the horizon and the sky was red and gold behind the houses and trees on the other side of the road. The air was still warm and perfect, birds were swirling across the sky, twisting and turning before heading to the trees to sing before sleep.</p><p>“That’s good to hear.” Maria said, tangling her fingers with Carol’s. Then she pushed her gently off the hood so she slid onto the ground, standing.</p><p>“What was that for?” Carol asked indignantly.</p><p>Maria steered Carol into position so she was facing out onto the street, right in front of Maria. Maria wrapped her legs around Carol’s waist, her arms around her middle, chin resting on Carol’s shoulder. Carol placed her hands over Maria’s. “That better?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>Out in the street, Monica was playing on her bike, laughing with Peter and Harley; Peter’s friends MJ and Ned were with them. Ned was helping Peter move a homemade ramp into a better position for riding up while MJ did cartwheels along the sidewalk and shouted measurements to them.</p><p>Carol could feel Maria smiling into her shoulder and pulling them closer together.</p><p>“Everything’s perfect.”</p><p>THE END.</p><p>
  
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